Sports are very time consuming in high school. They require students to spend not only their class time, but free time before and after school practicing for games and perfecting material for competitions. Students are required to show up to these sports that are held hours before and after school to get in more practice time then what they are given during the 45-minute class period.
With sports being a huge time consumption in students’ lives, the real question is this: Do students have enough time to spend with their friends and family or take time off for themselves without it affecting their own mental health?
Sometimes this often intervenes into other teachers’ class times with these students. For example, Casey Watson, the WHS head cheerleading coach, will pull her students out of class for an entire day to work on material for competitions months ahead; same with volleyball. When the volleyball team have an away game, they must to leave school early to get to the game on time and still be able to practice.
Not only does this put a strain on the teachers but it also limits the amount of time students have to get their work done, causing them to become stressed from having to do so much makeup work.
“I feel like I have no free time to do anything because if I’m not having practice for one thing, I’m having practice for another” said Sydney Nelson, a student in cheer and powerlifting. “So, I’m staying up late trying to do all my work and I’m not getting enough sleep.”
The lack of sleep is universal for all students as they try to balance school, work, sports, and friendships.
Friendships are an extremely hard thing to manage while in high school. Students are so busy trying to keep up on homework and their jobs that they barely have enough time to hang out with friends and keep the same connection as before.
“In the free time I do have, I’m all burnt out so I don’t want to spend it with people,” Nelson explains. “So my only friends are the people that do the same things as me. I feel like I lose a lot of friendships that I don’t…like if I don’t have a class with someone and they’re not in, like, cheer or in powerlifting, or something where I’ll see them a lot, then I just kind of lose the friendship because I never see them anymore.”
Kate Hansen, a WHS volleyball player who has also competed for the select team Texas Advantage Volleyball (TAV), explains that in high school it is easier to have a social life.
“But if you play like a club or select sport then you don’t really have a social life because you practice two to three times a week and have tournaments on the weekends.” Hansen says.
“So, you don’t really have a lot of free time when you play a club sport. And it is hard to keep up with school especially when you have a tournament on the weekends or if you have homework due Wednesday night but you have practice Wednesday so you would have to sacrifice your late nights.”
For students, school work is already a burden on their lives, but with athletes it is extremely hard for them to finish everything and get enough sleep before waking up at 6 a.m. the next day to do it all over again. This cycle is exhausting and crucial to students’ mental health.
Teachers tell students every year before major tests like STARR and SAT to get a good night’s rest yet expect them to finish their homework, go to practice, go to work, and still get in bed by 10 p.m. for a full eight hours of sleep.
This expectation is not only impractical but unrealistic.
An athlete still in high should not be expected to do so much at such a young age and come out fine.