School starts at 7:30. You switch every two hours to your next class, and then as soon as the school day ends you go straight to the field house to start your two hour practice, but that’s not the end. Once practice is done, you go home, take a shower, study or do homework, and then go to sleep. This is just the day and the life of a student-athlete.

It is hard to ignore the amount of work a student-athlete has to do in order to manage both athletics and academics at the same time. No matter how many sport’s you may play, whether you play one or multiple sports. 

No matter what level of athletics you’re working with, balance will always be key to your success as a student-athlete. As an athlete, you have to keep up with your intense practices and busy game schedules, but as a student-athlete, you also have to learn to balance intense practices and busy game schedules with your academics. It may get difficult at times, but to actually be successful they have to find ways to manage academics and athletics. 

“Sometimes it is more difficult to balance and manage my schedules, most likely it is,” said sophomore Tyler Rodriguez. “What really helps me though is just focusing and staying to myself”.

As a three sport athlete, unlike most athletes, Rodriguez has to balance sports and academics all year long, not just one season.

“I wake up, eat breakfast, come to school, then after school I go straight to practice every day,” said sophomore Saniya Stanley. “You have to stay on your work, make sure you get A’s and B’s because if you don’t you get kicked off the team automatically. My mom helps me sometimes with my work, and other times I go online, look at videos to help me instead”

Stanley is a two sport athlete. Both sports are back to back, making  it more difficult sometimes for her to manage her time. Winter sports and spring sports are constantly busy and Stanley has found a way to manage her academics and athletics at the same time. 

“It is difficult at times, because you gotta make sure you stay on top of your work, and then you gotta make sure you know what you’re doing in the sports you’re doing so you don’t get sat on the bench in games,” said sophomore Ahyanna Jackson. “Someone who helps me is God, but also my family helps me out a lot, but really you just have to have faith.”

Jackson, Stanley and Rodriguez are only three student-athletes working non-stop on balancing their schedules and making sure they don’t start lacking. They all have similar problems with managing their time, all three have different ways of balancing their schedules. When it comes between academics and sports, in order for athletes to be successful in their academics has to be put first. 

“I think it’s harder to be a student and an athlete at once than just a student,” said junior Emma Bartlett. “I always put school first, but it can be a challenge at times. It helps a lot that I have good coaches that help me balance my time though”.

Junior Emma Bartlett plays softball and volleyball. Unlike Rodriguez, Jackson, and Stanley, Bartlett has a gap between both sports. Even though she has more time to manage her schedule it still may be difficult for her at times.

What matters most is that athletes remember that in order to be a successful athlete, you cannot forget about how important your academics are if you want to compete at the next level. 

“Even though it gets hard at times for me to manage my schedule, it’s worth it.” Jackson said. “I love playing and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”