Baurichter’s Doing Sports ‘Wrong’ – But It Feels So Right

If I have a good time, that feels like success to me.”

By most standards of high school sports, McKenna Baurichter is doing it wrong.

She doesn’t train year-round. She doesn’t chase rankings. She doesn’t define herself by one sport.

Instead, the Peninsula High School senior skis in the winter, paddleboards in the summer, works shifts at a retirement home, tries sports like girls flag football “just for fun,” once alternated seasons between soccer and volleyball, and treats tennis — the sport she happens to be very good at — as just one part of an already full life.

And yet, she keeps winning.

In less than four years, Baurichter went from a beginner taking eighth-grade tennis lessons and playing at Sehmel Park with her grandma to one of the area’s most reliable players, finishing second in the South Sound Conference as a freshman, winning the SSC singles title as a sophomore, and capturing a Puget Sound League doubles championship as a junior.

On paper, it looks like nonstop dedication. In reality, it looks like balance.

“I don’t like putting all my eggs in one basket,” Baurichter said. “I like having a lot of hobbies and interests. I just want to have fun.”

High school sports increasingly reward athletes who train constantly, commit early, and treat adolescence like a stepping stone to scholarships and recruitment. Baurichter never bought into that script.

There were no elite academies. No youth tournament circuits.  Just curiosity, athletic instinct, and the willingness to try.

When the opportunity came to switch from singles to doubles last season, she didn’t see it as a setback to her singles career – she saw it as a chance to play with someone she admired. Senior Margaux Mayer needed a partner, and Baurichter stepped in.

“McKenna’s always willing to do what’s best for the team,” Peninsula tennis coach Cheri Ausboe said. “She gets better and better because she’s a natural athlete, but she picks up things along the way that put her a step ahead.”

Baurichter said doubles sharpened her mental game, her net play, and her sense of placement. It helped her refine her volleys, an area she admits still needs work, and deepened her understanding of movement, positioning, and decision-making. The duo went on to compete together at the 2025 WIAA Class 3A State Tennis Tournament, where they were eliminated in the opening round.

Now, as a senior, Baurichter plans to return to singles. Not because it’s strategic, but because Mayer graduated, and singles just feels right.

Baurichter is the anti-burnout athlete, competitive in season and content to live fully outside of it.

When tennis season is over, she isn’t hunting trophies in tournaments. She’s skiing near White Pass, lifting at the gym with friends, earning her Associate of Arts degree through Peninsula School District’s Running Start program, and clocking hours as a server at The Lodge at Mallard’s Landing, where she said she learns patience, empathy, and how to listen.

Baurichter recently wrapped up her first season of girls flag football — playing safety and wide receiver for the Seahawks — after a friend convinced her to try something new.

“I’d never done anything like football,” she said. “I just wanted to see what it was like.”

She played varsity. She improved on her spatial awareness and speed. She had fun. She moved on.

Even her future follows the same loose blueprint: try things, stay curious, and don’t rush the ending. This fall, Baurichter will attend the University of Nevada, Reno, where she plans to study biochemistry and possibly pursue a career in forensics. Even then, she isn’t locking herself into a long-term plan. She’s toying with the idea of first becoming a flight attendant for a few years, simply to travel because, as she put it, “it just sounds fun.”

As the tennis season ramps up, Baurichter knows younger teammates are watching her, but she doesn’t posture as a star.

“There’s a little more pressure,” she said. “But I’m just excited to get back into it.”

She’s quick to praise teammates like Olivia Mercado, eager to see other players develop, and more focused on the experience of the season than on her stat line.

Peninsula’s girls tennis program — a no-cut team that drew 62 players last year — will open its season next month. Making it to state as a singles player would be nice, Baurichter said, but whether she adds another championship to her collection is almost beside the point.

“If I have a good time,” she said, “that feels like success to me.”

For Baurichter, it’s less about constant training and more about making the most of being a teenager.

In a sports culture that often demands obsession, she’s quietly proving another path exists — one built on curiosity, balance, and perspective.

“I’m just going to try to enjoy my last season as much as possible,” she said.

Somehow, that mindset keeps winning.