For many students, a sport can be a great extracurricular activity. Sports teach a student how to work in a team setting, how to live a healthy life style, and how to build friendships. Overall, being part of a team is a great experience that can help with all aspects of life. Although sports are good for students, they can also place a burden on them.
Students currently struggle with the amount of work they receive daily. When participating in a sport, this only increases time constraints. For a Varsity sports player, practice schedules can be demanding, requiring students to practice almost every day of the week for one to two hours at a time. For upperclassmen, who are usually in more demanding AP classes, it can be a challenge to plan their every day schedule around these practices.
For Justin Daniels, a junior basketball player, practice is six days a week excluding Sundays, and can last two to two and a half hours at a time.
“We don’t always have enough time to do all of our work. Especially if we have a big project that we can only do at home, we don’t have enough time to actually do it,” said Daniels.
Garrett Young, a junior, cross country and track runner, also said that practice can takeaway from school.
“It takes time away from homework, which of course I have to plan around. I can’t really go to any ELP’s, cause we have practice after school sometimes, especially during track,” Young said.
“SAT and ACT dates are really hard to choose, because we have practice a lot of the time, or meets.”
Sports can also interfere with other extracurricular activities. For example, on top of all the school work and time dedicated to cross country, Garrett is also in the school band.
“I have rehearsals a lot of the time after school, or sometimes later in the day, and they’re at the same time, so it makes it hard,” said Young.
“During marching season, as the sun set earlier, cross country practice was moved up, and went earlier and earlier into band, so I had to make coach happy and the Band Director happy.
“As practice got earlier, Garrett would have to leave band rehearsal an hour early so that he could make practice. “I’d get to practice right as we started, which I always cut it close. There were a few days where I’d miss important movements, but I always learned it the next day,” he said, referring to what he’d miss in band.
Practices don’t just take away from the other things an athlete is involved in. Sometimes it can alter what kinds of things they choose to participate in. For both Daniels and Young, neither was allowed to participate in any other sports other than the ones they were involved in, due to risk of injury and getting kicked off of the team.
“I just wait until the season is done to really do anything. I don’t want to do anything that will get me in trouble and get me kicked off the team,” said Daniels.
Though sports can have a lot of restrictions on the way students spend their time on school work and how much they participate in other activities, being in a sport can be a truly fun experience. Though it makes things challenging, it also helps students with time management. Plus, if they find a sport that they’re passionate about, the benefits can outweigh the negative effects on scheduling.
“Cross country and any outside activities are A, really awesome to do, and B, help you manage your time,” said Young.
While scheduling around practice can make things challenging, it’s a great opportunity to develop time management skills, along with the other skills that being part of a sport can give you.
Nick Sowell // Co-Sports Editor
