The Balancing Act

            As winter sports rapidly approach their championship seasons and spring sports jump into gear, it begs the question of how do the athletes manage to get their schoolwork done and still manage to compete at a high level?

            Many freshmen struggle with just that. As they come to their own as athletes, it is often challenging to maintain good grades. Freshman lacrosse player Colleen O’Malley says that she struggles to stay motivated, and that television takes up a good amount of her free time, much to her grade’s dismay.           

Colleen claims that sometimes the heap of work and sports can be overwhelming. “I have to spend much more time [than high school] on it. Teachers give something every night.” For this reason, the athletics program institutes a six-hour, mandatory study hall every week for freshmen.

As students get older, many of them learn the balancing act that being a student-athlete entails. Though the name claims that these people are student-athletes, more often than not the names are reversed. When asked about her goals this year involving both athletics and academics, sophomore rower Morgan Baumgartle simply replied, “We want to be Big East champs. We have one team, one goal.”

Older athletes learn certain tricks that allow them to better manage their sports and athletics. Morgan makes sure she does not put off big assignments until right before they are due. She also utilizes the athletic study hall as much as possible, working on schoolwork in between classes and on the weekends.

With a constant supply of stress, student-athletes manage to balance their athletics and academics any way they can. Whether it be extra study hall time, or changing the way they manage their free time, athletes continue to perform at a high level while still graduating at high rates.