By Joel Neuschwander
Long practice hours, a pile of homework, and some sleepless nights.
Spring student-athletes at Hershey High School are learning to balance their athletic and academic lives, and it comes easier to some than others.
Colin White, HHS Sophomore, said sometimes he doesn’t have a lot of time to complete his homework after arriving home from practice and games. “When I have games, it is a struggle to get my homework done because of how late the games go,” White said.
White’s lacrosse practices are two and a half hours. With an hour to two hours of homework, the time he has to complete that homework is reduced.
By contrast, some students find maintaining the balance between athletics and academics much easier.
HHS sophomore and track team member, Jacob Fox, doesn’t struggle as much with completing assignments. This may be due to do receiving less homework. “I’m not too tired to do it when I get home, and there’s usually not that much anyways,” Fox said. In addition, track practices only run until 4:30, less than lacrosse.
According to Fox, who only has around 30 minutes of homework a night, the best strategy to finish his work efficiently may not be that complicated. “After dinner, I feel already regenerated enough to complete them with ease,” Fox said.
Unlike Fox, Eric Wood, HHS sophomore on the baseball team, is normally loaded with homework. Wood estimates that he has, on average, 3.5 to 5 hours a night. With two hour baseball practices, Wood must cram studying and homework into a miniscule amount of time. However, he has developed a regimen to complete his homework in a timely manner.
“I do English while I eat breakfast, and science always come first because it usually takes the longest. I do my math after science and everything else comes after math,” Wood said.
Wood believes his parents have been influential in underlining the importance of homework. “I know that my grades and schoolwork are the reasons I will go to college, not sports. I make time to do schoolwork even if it means missing a practice,” Wood said.
Another strategy Wood finds helpful is by saving some of his homework for the next morning on busy days. “I don’t do homework on Fridays but on Wednesday’s I force myself to do half the homework in the night and the other half in lunch or before first period,” Wood said.
Whether it’s saving some homework for the morning or cramming it into one night, these three student-athletes have proved one thing. Maintaining an equilibrium between sports and schoolwork is not easy, but it’s possible.
