Sleepless nights, late assignments and an endless schedule of practices and games: such is the ugly life of a student athlete. Before students tried out for their respective sports teams, a meeting was held in the auditorium discussing the administration and teacher’s expectations from their student athletes. The organizers emphasized that in the term “student athlete,” “student” comes before “athlete,” and assured that both academic and athletic success can be achieved simultaneously. However with coaches’ incessant demands, and Advanced Placement (AP) and Honors teachers’ heavy coursework, many people feel it can be impossible to handle everything at once.
Completing athletic and academic goals perfectly can be unrealistic for students like James Jin (10). Jin takes six AP classes, participates in several clubs, leads an engineering organization, practices basketball for two hours every day and ranks number five in his class.
“Difficulties such as poor time management when I get distracted sometimes get to me, also I don’t get as much time to hang out with friends since to be successful at both [athletics and academics] you must [make] sacrifices,” Jin said.
Since it is impossible to complete all of his responsibilities with the limited time he has, Jin is able to make deals with his coaches and teachers to make his schedule work. He was excused from 7th period basketball practice by his coach because of the rigor of his schedule, and although it helps, it only means Jin has to practice even more after school. In fact, many athletes do not have the liberty or privilege of making deals like Jin’s.
“For mock trial competition this year I have to miss four [lacrosse] games,” Karma Green (10) said. “Our coaches have a policy … [that says] we can’t play if we miss a game so that’s eight games I may not be playing in.”
Despite the coaches’ policy, Green may still have to play in many of those games because there are only two players who can substitute for her. Even when she can manage to balance academics and athletics, she still has to make sacrifices. Green has lacrosse practice Monday through Thursday, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays, she has mock trial practice afterwards. On these days, she does not get a chance to do her homework until 8 pm. Some students choose to sacrifice their health and sleep to excel in both academics and athletics.
“Sometimes I struggle, I mean Monday night I was up [until midnight] because I had a lot of work that day,” Adele Thompson (11) said. “This weekend I have an out of town [soccer] tournament but I also have to prepare for an AP Seminar presentation, which is part of my AP grade.”
With full and conflicting schedules, it is impossible to go to every practice, every game and every club meeting; and even harder to perform well and fully participate. Student athletes who struggle to balance their academics and athletics face the decision of either abandoning their grades or sports to maintain a healthy lifestyle or sacrificing their mental and physical health to fulfill expectations given by their coaches and teachers. However, quitting a sport that a student has been playing for years can be difficult. Athletics and academics both come with their own benefits, and many students are conflicted between choosing the exclusive benefits of the two.
“I would sacrifice sports in a heartbeat, I do not aspire to … [play for the NBA (National Basketball League)], so I am more academically focused since I see a future achievable by academic success,” Jin said.
