Sports are a big part of the life of Sedona Red Rock High School senior and Village of Oak Creek resident Jamie Alagna. But while Alagna is an athlete, his interest in sports goes beyond playing.
Following his graduation in the spring, Alagna hopes to go into biomedical sciences at Barrett, the Honors College at Arizona State University or do the Accelerated MSAT Program [3+2] in athletic training at Northern Arizona University. From there, he hopes to get his master’s in athletic training and eventually become an athletic trainer or occupational therapist.
It’s an interest that started by happenstance two years ago, when Alagna took a class with SRRHS sports medicine teacher and head athletic trainer, Andrea Bagnall.
“It was more by chance in my sophomore year,” Alagna recalled. “It was the only class I could take for that block so I decided, ‘Why not?’ From there I ended up falling in love with anatomy and the human body. I decided I wanted to go into Pre-Med.”
“I’m really, really interested in anatomy,” he added. “I will be a nerd sometimes and just read books about it.”
In addition to his interest in sports medicine, Alagna is also a multi-sport athlete at SRRHS. He swam for the Scorpions in his freshman and sophomore years. After taking his junior year off, Alagna returned to the pool for the Sedona team as a senior.
He also plays point guard for the SRRHS basketball team in the winter and mans first base, left field and even occasionally pitches for the baseball team in the spring. Of the sports he participates in, Alagna identifies basketball as his favorite.
“It’s just clicked with me the most,” he said. “I’ve always loved the teamwork in it. I’ve always kind of just known how to play it. It’s always clicked for me. I love practicing it, I love playing it, I love watching it. Just everything about it.”
Alagna has also been drawn in by another field of importance, especially in 2020: Politics.
He noted that despite the polarization that’s happened in 2020, he enjoys following politics on the news and reading books on the matter.
Alagna even said that he’s considered going into politics. But despite his interest in the matter, that road doesn’t seem like one he’s likely to travel down.
“I’ve thought about going into politics,” he said. “I’ve been told I’m relatively good at it, more because of the research I do. I don’t necessarily know about my argumentative skills. But I don’t think it’s something I want to go into because I personally think that all of politics is really corrupt. I think it isn’t the best move for me personally. I think I can help the world instead of destroy it.”
The goal of continuing his education after high school isn’t unique to Alagna. He knows that many of his classmates at SRRHS hope to go to college and possibly graduate school after that.
He also knows that those goals will best be met if more is done to help generate funds at the school.
“I’m trying my hardest like everyone at the school is,” Alagna said. “I would like to get an education as much as possible and I know Sedona isn’t the best place for that at Red Rock considering we’re really far in debt. I would like everyone in the VOC and Sedona to know that we would really like some funding because we really enjoy our education and a lot of us want to go very far into our higher education careers.”
