Practice schedules during the sports season can be intense. For senior Garret Cronin, his day starts with football practice at 6:15 a.m. each morning and goes until 7:15 a.m.. After school, he practices for another four hours every day of the August to November season. Cronin is not the only one to have such an intense school day schedule.

Sports can take up numerous hours out of any student athlete’s life, with practice occurring almost daily and games taking place multiple times a week. As a result of this, Cronin explains that his energy level is sometimes low during the school day.

“Sometimes in classes I feel tired, but once practice comes around, I start to pick up more energy,” Cronin said.

Volleyball also practices every day during their season. New to high school, freshman Riley Riggs believes that the repetitiveness of each day can become overwhelming.  

“It’s really hard to do all the sports and the school aspect because you’re up late and then you’re getting up early for school and then you’re doing it all over again,” Riggs said. 

Cronin thinks getting good sleep is essential, so he tries to stay on track with his assignments so his busy schedule doesn’t affect his health.

“[I] just try to stay on top of work, plan things out, try and use my time wisely, so I can still get good sleep,” Cronin said. 

Riggs has a similar problem with volleyball, as it doesn’t leave much time for homework throughout the week. Riggs likes to set goals for herself each day in order to manage her time and her work.

“I have little goals like I need to have this done by this time and it helps me keep everything manageable so I don’t forget anything,” Riggs said.

Senior Violet Hentges has a similar system to Riggs. She uses an agenda to keep track of all of her assignments. 

“I like to keep an agenda and write out every single thing I have, that way when I mark off something on my list [it] helps relieve some tensions,” Hentges said. “Sometimes I go to the library to be in a better environment to clear my head.”   

In addition to school volleyball, Riggs also plays club volleyball and  is also playing school basketball and plans to try out for track. She will have to balance her Monday, Tuesday and Thursday club volleyball practices with her other school sports when they start.

“Sometimes it’s stressful to manage both,” Riggs said.  “It can build up really quickly if you don’t slow down and focus.” 

Cronin had similar experiences with football, saying that it can be stressful to balance constant practices and rigorous coursework.

“There’s a lot of pressure to be successful and I kind of hold myself to a high standard,” Cronin said.

Hentges also experiences stress during the week especially since has a particularly hard workload most of the time.  

“I am constantly stressed. I don’t think I’m  never not stressed sometimes,” Hentges said. “But I like the challenge and I like the conversations I can have in the harder classes and [I] like being surrounded by people who also want to work hard.”  

Hentges also thinks taking harder classes will help her prepare for the future.

“I’ll definitely be prepared for college and maintaining work because I’m so used to balancing so many things on my plate currently,” Hentges said, “I think I’ll be better set up for the future than other people.”