They say that this is the age of specialization.

They say that athletes need to start focusing on one sport by the time they reach high school in order to meet the time commitments. They say the days of the 2 or 3-sport star are over.

They also say that to excel at a high level you need to keep things businesslike and avoid showing your emotions.

“They,” haven’t met Katie Trees.

Katie is a high school junior at Torrey Pines High School in the San Diego area. She plays club soccer on a very good team with Surf SC and has quite a good goal-scoring record, including leading the club team in goals in 2009 and her high school in goals for the recently-completed CIF season.

She is also a standout lacrosse player, and as it turns out was being recruited in both sports by a number of schools. In the case of Duke, however, soccer coach Robbie Church and lacrosse coach Kerstin Kimel found out about the dual interest and were able to work something out, as Katie explained.

“From Duke it was 100 percent positive. They are great coaches and just two great people, period,” Trees said. “They found out they were both recruiting me, which they didn’t know at first, and they discussed it and realized they would both like to have me in their program, and said it was fine with each of them for me to play both. I know it may be that in the long run I won’t be able to keep playing both and if that ends up happening it’s fine, but I’m excited for this chance.”

She admits that the wisdom of her playing multiple sports and jugging a myriad of activities isn’t unanimously agreed upon, but she perseveres.

“Sometimes people don’t believe you can apply yourself that diversely and still be good or make a significant impact in both,” she said. “Sometimes it’s hard for me because not everyone agrees that I should play both sports, but I think I’m doing an OK job. I take it day by day.”

Of course given the recruiting interest and scholarship offers, the question about Katie playing both in college isn’t about ability, but the demands of handling such a rigorous study load as a 2-sport athlete, especially at such a vaunted academic institution as Duke. While she obviously is a good student by virtue of being recruited by that school in particular, it’s worth noting that her high school (and club) exploits have also been accompanied by involvement as a youth coach in both sports, leading her school’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter, work with special-needs students through Best Buddies and her involvement in yet another passion – piano.

While some might think “overload” at first blush, you have to remember that for Trees and her family the point of doing all of this isn’t so much to see how far they can get (in and of itself), but because she and they love doing these things.

“I think it comes down to how much you love something,” Katie said. “For me, sports are everything. If I love what I’m doing 24/7, I won’t have a problem. Duke will be a little more rigorous, but as long as I’m doing what I love, I’m just going to be the happiest kid.”

A look at her soccer video highlights reveals that is not a throwaway statement. Too often these days, top players give a very passive response to their team scoring goals. Not Katie Trees. She jumps. She shouts. She pumps her fists. She even knocks teammates over sometimes. This is someone who hasn’t forgotten that first of all, the game is to be enjoyed.

Her mother Le Ann notes that this is a family-wide attitude. Her older brother Andrew is an undergraduate student at Penn. Her older sister Rebecca was also a standout lacrosse player but chose to focus on academics at UCLA despite being recruited by DI programs. Perhaps the most indelible impact on the family attitude was made by her brother Ben, who died in a skiing accident four years ago.

Both by gaining perspective from the tragedy of Ben’s death and learning from the joyous example of his life, Katie finds her late brother has played a key role in making her who she is.

“When my brother died, obviously it was a very traumatic event for us,” she said. “From the point of who he was, he was the type of person who had a smile that would light up a room. He did what he loved.

“I wear my brother’s armband in all my soccer games,” she continued. “He always tried to be the happiest kid so I try to bring that to my soccer and that’s what makes me happy. I never want to be the kid who only goes to practice just because her mom or dad was making her go. When people remember me, I want to be thought of as the kind of person my brother was.”

At the same time, the experience the family went through reminds Katie not to let the lows get too low.

“Things are thrown at you in life that you don’t ask for, but what are you going to do, crawl in a hole and not go live your life?” she said. “God has His plans. There’s some reason. Who knows what it’s for, but you have to be the person He wants you to be in life, and I think everything else will fall in place.”

Katie agrees that such a perspective toward participation is regrettably uncommon.

“I do think some kids don’t love it as much as they did when their dad signed them up, if you know what I mean,” she said. “Through what coaches are saying or what pressure the family or other people put on players, the fun of the game is just lost. Maybe sometimes it’s just that they grow and mature and realize they don’t like a sport as much as when they were 8. You have to put work into it to do well and to win, but if putting work into it isn’t any fun, you’re not going to get much out of it in the end.”

If they want to know how to have fun at and love playing sports again, they should watch and talk with Katie Trees.