Every high school athlete has experienced the problem of balancing homework and sports. For the select high school student whose passion is sports, this balance becomes trickier, often because of multiple practices per night. These student athletes work extraordinarily hard every day, operating on low amounts of sleep because of late practices and even later homework sessions.

Sophomore Lauren Hansen, a skier, runner, and soccer player, juggles multiple sports practices and homework daily. “After school I either go to dry-land for Alpine or we go to Buck Hill, I get home at, like, seven. I go to soccer until ten, then I go home, do my homework, shower, and sleep,” Hansen said. Lauren plays 14 hours of sports a week, and manages to complete her homework every day.

“I try to do a lot of it in school, but outside of school I end up having to spend an hour and a half to two hours [on my homework],” Hansen said.
What is her tip for finishing homework every night? “Just spend the free time you have at school wisely, don’t mess around during your free periods or waste your time socializing, because you don’t have much time, so the time that you do have in school. You need to manage your time wisely; otherwise you won’t get anything done,” Hansen said.

Freshman Ned Laird-Raylor, a year round swimmer, has a similar tip to Hansen’s. “Use your school time…[homework] is definitely do-able with sports, it is just kind of hard because you have to manage your time really well.” Laird-Raylor said.

Not only do student athletes have to complete homework in short periods of time, they also have to find time to scarf down food everyday. Laird-Raylor’s sports practices interfere with dinner time almost every day. For club swimming, Laird-Raylor has to eat two dinners, a small one before swimming and a small one after.

For school swimming, Laird-Raylor tries to chow on the car ride home from swimming, or he eats a quick dinner when he gets home. “[To deal with the mealtime problems] I kind of eat throughout the day, always.” Laird-Raylor said. Laird-Raylor said that the coaches recommend consuming chocolate milk as a muscle recovery drink. “And I am not going to question that because I love chocolate milk,” Laird-Raylor said. He also recommends eating granola bars and fruit to keep energy levels up.

The commitment to each of these sports is quite large, considering a soccer game lasts for about an hour and a half and a swim meet can last almost twice as long. According to Laird-Raylor, club swim meets can last for over 6 hours over a two day period.

Many people will question how student athletes have such a commitment to the sport, and a lot of the athletes simply love their sport and are very passionate about playing it. For Laird-Raylor, swimming is more about the results than the actual swimming. “I enjoy swimming and I do like getting better a lot…I have to push myself or else I don’t stay with it, I get bored and I don’t like the results,” Laird-Raylor said. He is trying to say that the more dedicated you are, the better results you get and the good results encourage you to push yourself harder everyday. Student athletes are quite talented, and with 15 hours a week of sports, it is hard to question their dedication.