There are numerous multi-sport high school athletes, but what Levi Little has accomplished is no small feat.

Little has participated in six different sports involving six different schools in the past four years. His resume includes cross country, track and field, and golf for Frederick, football for Leola-Frederick, hockey for the Aberdeen Cougars, and baseball for Warner-Ipswich-Northwestern.

Regardless of the activity, Little has learned that they all share one common denominator.

“Everyone single one of them requires a really good work ethic,” Little said. “If you’re not putting in 110 percent for every sport, you’re not going to play.”

Whether as a tight end-middle linebacker for the football team, a left wing for the hockey squad, a pitcher in baseball, or trying to make a short putt, Little said there is another key ingredient it takes to be successful at each sport.

“I think every single one of them requires a good part of mental toughness. For baseball, if you lose your head for pitching, you’re going to start throwing a lot of balls and there will be wild pitches,” Little said. “In football, if you’re not mentally tough, you’re going to come out of the game. You have to kind of keep your head there as well. In hockey, if you lose your head, you’re going to start drawing penalties and it’s going to hurt your team more than help it.”

Naturally, Little has had dozens of teammates through the years.

Little grew up playing hockey in Aberdeen and eventually started going to school in Frederick in seventh grade. He started playing baseball for W-I-N last season.

“I made a lot of really good friends in Frederick, that wasn’t very tough,” Little said of fitting in.

He said since Warner was a rival of Frederick, he knew a lot of those guys as well.

“They were very, very welcoming,” Little said of the Warner-Ipswich-Northwestern players. “They needed a player and I kind of helped fill that spot.”

Playing so many sports in so many locations has been a bit of challenge as you might expect. Last year, before Little had senior privileges in Frederick, he would head to early morning practice with the Cougars, then rush off to Frederick to get ready for school.

“We’d get done with practice and I’d go to school and shower in the locker room before class,” Little said. “I’d get there by 7:45 and I had to be in class by 8:05.”

Somehow, Little has managed to fit in a few hours for a part-time job as well.

While he has been able to escape serious injury, Little’s body has felt the toll of all the physical activity. As a result, he has started a new routine.

“Right now, I’ve been on an ice bath regimen,” Little said. “I’ve had three weeks straight of taking an ice bath after every practice. My shoulders were hurting, and I figured I needed to do something about it.”

Through the years, Little has accumulated multiple memorable moments during his playing days. For starters there was the state hockey championship he was a part of as a member of the Cougars Bantam team. “That was the by far the best hockey team I’d ever played on,” he said.

Then there was his interception on the final play of the game to seal a football victory over Warner. And finally, he caught a touchdown pass during a game at Dacotah Bank Stadium on the campus of Northern State. “That was my first ever varsity touchdown,” Little said, “so that’s pretty cool.”

Through it all there has been Little’s non-stop commitment to working hard and doing whatever he can to help whatever squad he is a part of.

“He is a great kid and a great teammate. He was a versatile player who was willing to play wherever the team needed him,” said Cougars coach Jeremey Backous. “If we had an immediate need during the game because of an injury or a penalty, Levi was there to fill that spot. It didn’t matter where it was in the lineup, he would step in to fill that role.”

As Little’s prep career is coming to a close, he is gearing up for the next challenge in his life. He will be attending the University of South Dakota with the ultimate goal of someday becoming a surgeon.

For now, though, Little has golf and baseball seasons ahead of him. While informed it would be pretty cool to be able to compete in state tournaments in both, Little shot down that possibility.

“As much as I’d like to say I’d make it to the state tournament in golf, I’m just not where I need to be for that,” Little said. “I’m still putting in time, but golf is more of a hobby to me than a sport, I suppose.”

While Little has had a demanding schedule competing in various sports in various locations, he said the journey has been well worth the time.

“I definitely enjoyed every minute of it. Sports definitely helped me in school,” Little said. “It taught me a lot of things. Hard work pays off and even when things don’t go your way, you can always turn people’s heads trying your hardest.”