Bailey Myers has been running track since fifth grade. She competes in the 100-meter dash and long jump for Joppa Junior High, where the team is small enough that relay events aren't even an option — they simply don't have enough athletes.

So Bailey runs what she runs and jumps what she jumps. Her long jump PR is about eight feet.

"It's not the best," the seventh grader said, "because I've never practiced long jump. My coach just kind of threw me in there."

That coach is Mr. Craig, who's new to the school this year. He also recently pulled Bailey from the 200-meter because she had a softball game the same day, and he didn't want her to run herself out. That kind of cross-sport management is daily life for Bailey, whose athletic schedule is stacked well beyond what most twelve-year-olds carry.

"I'm currently on four different teams," she said — meaning softball teams.

She plays for the 2013 Talons travel squad, finishing out 12U this summer before moving up to 13U in the fall. She's a utility player who can handle any position on the field except first base. Her favorites are second base and catcher. The weekends are all tournaments. She just had one — a Cinco de Mayo tournament. She couldn't quite remember the name but knew the holiday: "like a Cinco Dee."

When asked what she likes about track specifically, Bailey didn't talk about times or medals.

"I like the part where I get to run and be free and not get in trouble for running around the school," she said. "And I get to race against other people and meet new friends at track meets."

Her friend Rhemi Sharp, a sixth grader who transferred to Joppa from Century Elementary in third grade, was also at the interview — though technically, she's not on the track team. She plays volleyball and wasn't entirely sure why she'd been sent.

But Bailey had ideas.

"I feel like she'd be good at discus," Bailey said.

Rhemi considered it. Would she join the track team next year?

"Maybe," she said.

Rhemi's summer plans are simpler than Bailey's: the beach, friends, hanging out. Bailey's summer will be consumed entirely by softball — four teams' worth of tournaments, travel, and dugout time.

"Banging on buckets, doing cheers left and right," Bailey said about the softball atmosphere.

Both girls also play volleyball, which they agree has a similar energy — the constant cheering, the coming together after every point, the built-in encouragement that smaller-roster sports seem to produce naturally.

When the interviewer mentioned that math was about to get harder, Bailey confirmed without hesitation.

"Yes," she said. "Exactly."

She didn't seem worried. She's a kid who gets thrown into the long jump with no practice and figures it out. Algebra will probably get the same treatment.