Many high school students are involved in sports. Participating in school sports itself is very time consuming and with the stress of school on top of that, what is it taking for these athletes to be successful in both areas? Do students have time for their academic career and required homework? Do they have time to fit in all their training and practices required for their athletic career to hold the team up instead of dragging them down?

The answer is yes for many student athletes. Senior student wrestler Samuel Rush (12)has been wrestling since he was four years old and continued his whole student career, making it to state on multiple occasions. The skill of balancing school and sports is nothing new to this hard-working athlete. ” As I get older and the homework gets harder” he explains, ” it has become more difficult since more time is needed to complete the school work but for the most part I’ve been able to figure it out. In some cases it means I need to get up earlier or stay up later than I’d like to but I always get it done.”

The students aren’t the only ones who are taking time out of their day to keep the team going strong, coaches too take many hours of the day thinking of games, making plays, and ordering team gear.

Coach, and teacher at AHS, Joe Marsh deals with time management just as students do. “It takes up a lot of time for everyone.” Marsh says. Being a teacher, Marsh has school work that needs to be done but just as the team players, sacrifices time for the team. Many nights are long, not getting home until ten or eleven o’clock but its important to continue to work hard at basketball then be sure to get a good rest so every player is ready for another day.

Marsh explained that he too was involved with basketball in high school and he too had to deal with a tight schedule along with balancing school, though “kids spend more time now than we did on homework.” They also now spend more time on the court practicing and training that marsh and other athletes did back in the day. Our athletes now are set to a higher more strict standard that each person has had to adapt their daily schedules to fit.

Times have changed and so has the workload, but the ability to balance athletics and academics is more than possible. Our student body is made of many athletes that are continuing to be successful in school.