Graphic by Isaac Belina
Being a student in levels of K-12 education is already what some might call a “full time job,” and student athletes are working overtime.
Balancing schoolwork and athletics has been proven to be difficult, according to Roosevelt athletes, mainly due to school sports taking so much time. CJ Nickel ’25, a swimmer who already has a heavy workload as a junior, leaves the house at 6:20 every morning in order to be on time for her 6:45 a.m. swim practice. She said this causes her to be “very, very tired all the time and very stressed because it is a lot.”
Lucy Pew ’24, a runner on the cross country team and lacrosse player, said, “I feel like I have a lot of work,” and being a student athlete “gives you less time out of school, so you have to learn to prioritize your time much more.” Although she said learning to manage one’s workload can be a good lesson, she also said it “can also be a problem because you get less sleep because you have to do your schoolwork and you have less time to focus on recovery and being the best athlete you can be because you have all this extra schoolwork.”
Pew said, “I feel like just over the past few weeks, I’ve noticed, and a lot of my teammates have noticed, that we haven’t been able to sleep as much. Because we have so many assignments and so little time to do it.” She continued, “when all of us are sick or injured it’s harder to bounce back when you can’t get the amount of sleep that you need. We need to be able to recover and we can’t recover if we are doing so much outside of [our sport].”
Alex Patterson ’24, a varsity football and soccer captain, said sometimes he gets overwhelmed balancing sports and school. “My sophomore year I did the school play, because they wanted football players to be part of the musical. I remember I had that, soccer tryouts, and this DECA competition. There was one day when I was at school for like 14 hours, which was a lot.”
Balancing athletics and academics can be hard at times but athletes find ways to manage. Nickel’s tips for balancing school and athletics are to “get your homework done when you can, where you can, and sleep when you can where you can, and drink a lot of water because your muscles hurt and stuff and that makes learning even worse.”
Pew said specific people have helped her manage. She said, “My parents have been super helpful in supporting me,” as well as “having teammates that we can work together and talk through different situations and it’s nice because you can relate to them with what is going on, or maybe do homework together.” Also a basic tip that she has is “making sure to use the time that I am given to get things done,” as well as prioritizing work.
On the flip side, being a student athlete also has some benefits. Patterson commented about the benefits, “It makes me appreciate my free time a lot. When I have a few weeks off, it feels so nice to go home after school and not have to do anything, which sounds pretty simple, but I take it for granted.”
Pew pointed out more benefits, saying, “I think being a student athlete is really good for my mood.” When she has a stressful day or on a day she feels off, she said, “I go to practice and I feel happier at the end. I love being around my team. I love all my teammates. Being part of something like that is super special and it’s something that I’m really lucky to have as part of my life.”
Nickel, who has been competitively swimming since she was 7, said she has continued swimming all of this time because “I really like swimming, 95% of the time I really enjoy the people and it is a very good form of exercise.” She recalled an instance where her hard work paid off, saying, “These last two years I dropped over 10 seconds in my 500 freestyle … all these moments really motivate me because I can see my improvement.”
Pew, who has played lacrosse since she was little, continues to do it because “I just love my team and my sports, and they are super important to me. They are a community that I really associate with and I just love being around them. I know it is not going to be forever so I want to make as much of it as I can.”
There are also some moments for her when all the hard work pays off and it feels really good. Pew mentioned, “The previous season we had not been very good, we made playoffs, and last year we went to the State championships because everyone on our team was constantly showing up at practice and after practice.” She said that it got hard at times, but they continued to work hard and “it was cool to see how all of us were really prioritizing lacrosse, getting everything else done around it and making time for it, and it paid off and worked.”
