Spike, Set, Stress?

What It Is Like to Juggle a Sport and School

Sultana+spikes.++

Perla

Sultana spikes.

Perla Espinosa

Sports are back at Sultana! Everyone is excited to be enjoying games, but do the athletes have enough time for other responsibilities? 

As life slowly gets back to normal, schools have opened up sports to most students. Now that we are back to school full time, not all athletes are prepared for the athletic and academic stress.

Most of you know that playing a sport when you are little to playing a sport in high school are two different things. Mary Sanchez, a freshman at Sultana high school and a varsity volleyball player says “Being in a sport for high school is like a whole other lesson.”

 Lola Hansen, a junior in high school with a lot of extracurricular activities and varsity sports says, “Middle school sports are really easy.  It’s like ‘let’s have fun if we win we win,’ but high school is more competitive and there are a lot more expectations.” No matter how hard they practice, most students are not ready for tryouts. All volleyball players got to practice during the summer season, yet tryouts are hard for non returners.

Mary said “Tryouts for high school sports were so hard. My body hurt so bad the next day. Being a freshman in varsity sports is very demanding with a lot of high expectations.” 

With those high expectations, missing out on after school hangouts is expected. We all love to hang out with our friends, but most of the time athletes don’t get that chance to. 

Their practices are from 7:00-8:15 in the morning. They have to get changed in the locker room to get ready for school. 

After school, they would have to go home to shower, eat, and do homework. With a whole new schedule, student athletes have to adjust to the new times as they get to school at 8:45 and leave at 3:40. Due to this new schedule, most schools have to push practices to very early in the morning.

These student athletes do not always have enough time to hang out with their friends. Not to mention that the student athletes eat, sleep, and breathe school to the point where they have little to no time for friends and family.

Although this sounds bad, there must be a light at the end of the tunnel. Mary says “Being on the volleyball team definitely helps me be a lot more social.” For players like Mary, they form friendships with their teammates so that they end up having time with friends as they practice.  

Befriending fellow athletes can also take that stress away from thinking that the upper grademen have it out for you. So yes, high school volleyball is stressful and it can interfere with school, but in the process you are doing what you love and you gain some good friends along the way. 

Keep up the good work girls and have fun!