The Life of A Student Athlete

David Griego  Normally, for regular students once school ends you can go get some food, work on school work, hang out with friends, or even go home and sleep. Us as student athletes, we can’t do that. Normally we have practice right after school, which means we can’t even eat unless it’s a very small snack because if you eat a lot of food before a workout it’s not going to end up right. We also have to make sure we manage our time correctly because we also have school work and some of us take AP classes. Our schedule is usually wake up, school, practice/game, chores and then homework. By the time we actually finally get to homework it’s already almost 9. Some sports require two practices a day, or some sports the player plays in two different leagues for. (Travel ball and high school) Which means right after one practice, we can’t go home, can’t eat and can’t start on homework because we have a whole other practice. Also, on game days if the game is away we leave during 5th period, so whatever we miss in those classes we have to find time to make it up. Also, as athletes we are supposed to represent the school. We can’t start acting up in class, we have to show maturity because we represent a whole unit and team. The stress load we have is very high as well. I’m not saying we have it worse than other students but take into consideration the workload we have on a daily routine. Lastly, we have to deal with the fact that most people look at athletes and think that is all we are. We often get looked at as “Dumb Jocks” , just because of the common stereotype that athletes don’t take school seriously. We love sports yes, but we are for more than “Just an athlete.”