Being a student in high school is hard; sitting in class for an hour and twenty minutes straight listening to teachers lecturing can be unenjoyable. Getting large amounts of homework in one class and then having a project piled on top of that can quickly get exhausting. Many students have jobs, after school activities, and other things that they do along with school. It is really hard to manage all of that. But, when one puts being an athlete on top of all those things, it just gets harder and harder to manage time.
High school student-athletes have even more stress that is piled on when it comes to their sport. They have to balance their social life with their school and sports lives. Having enough time to go to practice, finish homework, hang out with friends, and still find time to be by themselves is hard. When going through their day-to-day, student-athletes have to take careful consideration to make sure they have time to get everything done. This may mean staying up late, canceling plans to finish the more important activities or cramming as much as they can at once.
One way to balance being an athlete with one’s social life is to plan ahead. If someone knows they do not have practice, games, or meets, then they can plan to do homework or hang out with their friends. Friends of athletes also have to be mindful and know that their friends will often be busy nine times out of ten.
I’yana Robbinson, 10th grade basketball player said, “I look ahead of time… that way I can put as much time into my friends as I can, while also balancing out sports.”
Kristyn Filsame, 10th grade cross country runner said, “I love hanging out with my friends and with my team, but usually my friends understand that I have other things to do.”
Lillian Grishers, 11th grade tennis player said, “I plan ahead so that I know when I have time to hangout and when I have time to do homework.”
It is very easy to be stressed out as a student-athlete, but as long as one has a well-balanced life and gets everything done, their life can be so much easier and fun.