Balancing Athletics and Honors Classes

Osvaldo Canchola Garcia staff writer

Student athletes have a heavy load. Trying to find time for homework and studying with practice, team dinners, and games can be very difficult to manage. Sheldon’s vibrant and widespread athletic community means that many students deal with this.

Freshman Kiana King is a student-athlete who’s taking two honors classes and geometry. King is a dancer and is negatively affected by the workload she receives from her classes. King explained, “It’s difficult to be dedicated to both of those at the same time.”

King finds it difficult to balance between both dance and her school work. King also believes this is an important topic to talk about: “I know many other student athletes in higher level classes who struggle with timing and dedication.” Homework seems to be a big issue for student athletes in higher level classes, as King is a student who struggles with completing homework at home. She cannot complete her homework after school so she has to find time during her first period to complete it.

Studying for big tests can also be difficult. King struggles to find proper time to study, so she also uses her first period as a study time. The feeling of having to dance the day before a test is very stressful for King. She said, “When I have dance, I am very focused on dance and not on tests or quizzes.”

With so much going on, King has already tried to develop ways to cope with her big workloads: “I cope by talking to a trusted adult...and time to relax and do something good for my brain like reading, drawing or going on a walk.”

King believes she isn’t the only student athlete feeling like this with advanced classes. King said, “I can’t name anyone because I feel personally every student athlete in honors or higher level classes feel the same with their work.” Sleep is very important for students, and King feels she loses a lot of sleep due to her homework and projects.

Many of these things deter King, but she still remains strong throughout the year. King said, “It’ll benefit me throughout my high school journey and further education, and I am up for the challenge.” King’s perspective and experiences describe how student athletes in advanced classes have an excessive amount of work to complete while doing their sport.

Freshman Hayden Kearney is also a student athlete who’s taking two honors classes. Kearney is a tennis player and played basketball outside of school and believes that “student athletes taking high level classes is a very important thing to talk about because [of] the amount of practices, games, etc.”

As an athlete, like King, Kearney has practice and games often, even before taking big tests and quizzes the following day. Kearney said, “Practices or games will most likely always be in the way of studying for a big test. So if that means staying up late to study after practice, or games, or staying late after school, before practice, or a game starts to study, then that’s what you have to do.”

Sometimes Kearney cannot find time to study for tests or quizzes because of sports: “When I physically do not have enough time to study between going to school and playing sports, I find myself wanting to skip school and give myself more time to prepare.” Kearney’s desire to skip is a bad habit, but she struggles to find an alternative.

Kearney also doesn’t feel great about having practice or a game before a test, and said, “I definitely tend to get a little stressed and start to feel unprepared for a test or quiz when I have sports the day before. I feel like all my time should be focused on studying.”

As a freshman, Kearney doesn’t have a free period like some upperclassmen do, but she knows ways teachers can help her study and complete work. Kearney said, “Teachers who provide office hours before or after school are definitely a huge help to student athletes…Not all teachers put everything on Canvas and missing parts of school multiple times a week gets challenging to keep up with work when it is not provided online.”

Kearney knows other students who feel similar to her or worse, “I have friends, and teammates who are definitely more stressed about school in season. There is so much pressure for us to do well on the court, and in school, and being overloaded with work is the last thing players want.”

Sleep is something everyone needs, including athletes like Kearney. Unfortunately for her, she hasn’t been so fortunate in getting good sleep during basketball season, and said, “Some nights I would lose up to three hours of sleep from working.”

Despite the difficulties Kearney experiences, she has her reasons for staying in those classes. Kearney said, “I decided to stay because I want myself to be challenged, and I want to have higher level classes to achieve goals I have.”