MISSOULA — Down time? Not on Maci Reiff's watch.
The Missoula Sentinel honor roll student packs her schedule with golf, tennis, band, welding and Irish dancing.
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"I need to be busy. I cannot sit still," Reiff said with a laugh.
Reiff has stuck with Irish dancing for most of her life.
"I don't know, my mom just put me in it. We weren't really sure what it was, but I've been doing it since I was, like, 6," Reiff said. "Now I'm in the top level and choreographing things."
Dance suits the dimunitive Reiff, who performs in recitals and plays, but the instrument she plays in the school band might come as a surprise.
"Euphonium, baritone. It's like a small tuba," she said. "I actually wanted to play the tuba because my friends and my parents were like, 'Hey, you should play the biggest instrument since you're such a tiny kid' as a joke. And I was like, actually, sure."
Dance and band require focus and precision. Reiff has those traits in spades and frequently puts them to use — whether lining up putts on the green or doing welding beads.
"If you get in your head in either thing, it's not going to go well because you're thinking about it too much," Reiff said.
Reiff tied for seventh at the Class AA state golf meet and even has a hole-in-one on her resume.
But welding has surprised even Reiff herself.
"I actually didn't think I'd like it at all, but then I tried it and kind of stuck with it and made a bunch of artsy things, like flowers," she said. "And now I'm thinking I might want to do that as a career."
As a senior, she's thinking about what might be next. But she's also taking the time to offer advice and mentor younger teammates.
"It's kind of crazy to watch because she does so much stuff and she's involved in a lot of the stuff at our school, too," said freshman Nora Kosena, a teammate of Reiff's on the Sentinel golf team. "And she always finds a way to make time for everything — like, she rearranges stuff and makes time to be at practice and do extra golf stuff."
Down time? What down time?
