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Honors Student Athletes (MC) When the bell rings at 2:45 every weekday, students rejoice, but for the captain of the varsity soccer team, the day is only halfway over. He goes to the locker room, changes his clothes, and heads to practice. He is there doing drills with the team for a few hours, and after that the whole team has a pasta party, getting pumped up for the game tomorrow. At around nine in the evening, he finally gets home, exhausted and ready for bed. There is no time to relax, though. He sits down for many more hours, working on homework until midnight.

The next day, he goes to school dreading his two tests that he didn’t have time to study for. But he goes on through the day, and when the bell rings at quarter of three, the cycle begins again.

The day is tough work for this average student, so one can only imagine how much these difficulties are magnified for an honors student athlete. Any athlete who dedicates time to his or her work feels the stress at the end of every day and during the next school day. Senior Enzo Cortet, member of the varsity soccer team, often finds himself doing his homework during school on the day that it is due because of his hectic schedule. He doesn’t like to skip homework altogether, but during season, his “attention was just not there” because he was thinking about an upcoming came or because he was simply tired from practice.

Senior Megan Haggerty, another varsity soccer player, has been taking multiple honors and AP classes since sophomore year, and she can especially feel the stress. “Most of the AP classes I have taken require a lot of work,” she says, and “most nights I don’t have enough time to finish all of the work I intended to accomplish that night, so I end up using my lunch and other classes to do it.”

As a track runner as well, she feels the stress almost as much during spring track season. “I never really feel like I am fully prepared with my assignments because there is not enough time.” She fully dedicates herself to her schoolwork, often using her entire weekend to catch up on work so that she doesn’t get more behind during the school week.

The stress can become unmanageable at points, though. Casey Schoenholtz, Hopewell Valley Senior and basketball star, has had moments “when everything just seemed to happen all at once. I would have a pysch party, a game, four tests, and one huge project all in one week. Sometimes I have to go to school late because I stay home finishing work.”

Despite the workload, the athletes still manage to do well in class, and they don’t complain often. Some may say that the athletes deserve a reprieve; maybe they should receive gentler assignments during their seasons. But they all say that they have learned to manage their time well enough, and their top priority is their academics, no matter what.

“During the season the work load can be a little overwhelming, but I have learned to manage my time. I start my homework as soon as I get home from sports and work diligently,” says Schoenholtz. “Sometimes when I go home, all I want to do is lay down on a couch in front of the TV and relax for a few hours, but I remind myself how important it is to do well in school, and I am able to keep my mind on the task. Haggerty is in agreement, stating that she doesn’t think that teachers should decrease workload because “I chose to take the classes even though I knew they were demanding and it could put me at a disadvantage compared to non-athletes taking the same courses.”

Even teachers who also coach a sport do not feel that it is necessary to lessen the workload while in season. Both Coach Oldfield and Losch feel that academics are separate from athletics, and they never assign less work or simpler work during their seasons so that their athletes don’t have as much on their plates.

Ultimately, the tough workloads are just a part of high school, and athletes have it a little bit harder when it comes to completing it. But with that difficulty, they also learn how to manage their time more than a non-athlete student would. They learn a skill that is required throughout life, and because of this, the stressful schedule might actually be worth it. High school athletes manage to be involved with two enriching aspects of high school.