Student-Athletes Learn to Juggle Demanding Schedules

Elizabeth+Ramer+pumps+up+her+team+before+a+game.

Elizabeth Ramer pumps up her team before a game.

Amanda Diaz, Staff Reporter

A student-athlete is someone who participates in a sport while also in school. This person must find a way to balance both their athletics and academics at the same time.

Many find this balance to be difficult, for school and homework take up a good chunk of the day, as do sporting activities.

“It’s hard sometimes because our practices usually go until 6, and we’ve had a lot of games at the beginning of the season,” said Senior volleyball player Elizabeth Ramer. “We’ve already had over 20 matches, so it’s been crazy at the beginning, but it’s starting to slow down now, which is nice. But you really just have to do volleyball, then go home, shower, eat dinner, do homework and fall asleep,”

Freshman varsity cheerleader Heather Avis also expressed an understanding of what it means to be overwhelmed by having to adapt to high school while also being a part of a team.

“I get a lot of homework, and I don’t get a lot of time to do it,” she said.

Student-athletes seem to know that with such a busy schedule, it is inevitable that there will always be something going on. Besides school and sports, students must eat and sleep and attempt to maintain a social life.

“I have time to hang out with friends and family on the weekends, but during the week, it’s just school and sports,” said Avis.

Some students, especially upperclassmen, also have ACTs to take or college applications to do, as well as part time jobs to attend.

“I have a job at Little Joey’s. Since our practices go until 6, I can only work on Saturdays and Sundays, so I do that every weekend,” said Ramer. “It doesn’t give you a lot of free time.”

While many students take school seriously by studying hard, an athlete has additional stakes on the line if their grades aren’t good.

Athletes must maintain certain grades in their classes in order to be eligible to play.

“Our coach holds us to a high standard with grades. Almost every week we have a grade check-in… we can’t be failing. We can’t have Ds or anything like that. If you do, you can’t play,” said Ramer. “Every year, we’ve always won the state GPA award, so we always try to get good grades to win that again.”

The drive to do well in classes can either be this type of extrinsic motivation, or it can be an intrinsic one.

“I’m just a motivated person to get good grades,” said Tyler White, junior golfer. “I’ve always gotten As, and I want to keep it that way.”

Although there are difficulties, many athletes see the benefits in terms of life skills they are building both academically and athletically.

“It teaches you to work hard and always try your best. Also, it can teach you to be committed to something like doing your homework every night,” said Avis.

But student-athletes have to be proactive when choosing classes and considering their athletic schedules.

“Before the school year starts, I try to work with my counselor and try to make sure I have a pretty easy class load on the seasons that I’m going to play sports, and so with that, my homework load isn’t too bad right now,” said White.

At some point in the career of student-athletes, they find that school and sports are bound to conflict, so players have to develop strategies for handling any obstacles that might arise.

For example, some days the MHS golfers have to miss a full day of school for tournaments.

“That’s probably the hardest,” said White. “That’s only like twice a year, but a lot of time we miss half days. So again, I talk to my counselor and make sure all my harder classes are first and second period because I normally leave after second for golf.”

It’s a hard adjustment for some, but most student-athletes learn how to schedule themselves, so they can get all of their work done for both school and athletics.

As an upperclassman, Ramer advised, “Manage [your] time wisely, and know that after sports, schoolwork has to come first. Also, try to look for any extra down time during school to work on homework.”