The Narrative of a Student Athlete

By Holly Richardson

The hardest part about being a student athlete is trying to establish a definitive balance between your sport and academics. From an outside perspective, it can be easy to say that school takes priority 100% of the time. However, when you’re as dedicated as the students at Biotech, giving less than your best in any area is not an option. There are days where I spend 45 minutes of lunch doing math homework so that I have enough to study, eat and attempt to sleep after my tennis match that day. There are other times when I spend the entire bus ride doing as much reading as I can instead of prepping for the impending away game like the rest of my team. You have to make tough decisions as a student athlete. Sports and school make up the bulk of your life and if you're not strategic they can start to impact other important parts of your life as well. Your social life can begin to suffer, and the already long list of things to do may not leave any room in your schedule. Balance, the most important IB learner attribute in my opinion, is the most important thing a student athlete can strive to achieve.

Using experience from the previous year, I decided that I would make the most of my time as a sophomore. I went to football games at my home high school, texted friends I hadn’t seen since 8th grade, made sure I did something that wasn’t related to school or tennis at least once a month. While this may seem like schedule overload, it actually motivated me to get my work done on time. Even though my particular course of action may not be for everyone, here are a few tips I think every student athlete could benefit to learn from.

TIPS

1. Stay organized: It will help you save valuable time. Little things like packing your backpack and picking out your outfit the night before can cause your day to start of smoother and allow you to focus on bigger priorities.

2. Be strategic: Do all your work the day it’s assigned. Study for a test 30 minutes two days before instead of trying to cram the day before. Read, start vocab, work on anything small piece of homework on your bus ride home. One con of going to a MCVSD school is the distance. Turn it into a perk and use your travel time as an advantage.

3. Balance: It’s okay to take a break, especially on the weekends. Do things that interest you, continue activities you did prior to high school and venture into areas outside your comfort zone. It diverses your life and creates opportunities to enjoy yourself.. Make sure to have a support system outside of Biotech; it’s refreshing to be comfortable in a different type of environment that the one that surrounds you five days a week.

4. SLEEP: At Biotech, we take pride in our sleep deprivation and often wear it as a badge. A lack of sleep affects both academic and athletic performance, not to mention the sheer exhaustion experienced by students athletes calls for a healthy amount of sleep on its own. Waking up at 6:00 will make anyone a little sleepy, but the day goes a lot smoother with 6-8 hours of sleep behind you.

5. It’s okay to not be able to do it all: There are days you’ll fall asleep before finishing your homework, times when you have to study instead of hanging out with your friends. It may seem like you’re missing out at the time, but in the long run it will be worth the short term disappointments. You can always catch the next movie that comes out, the same can’t be said about that 200 point biology exam.

Students have lived this lifestyle way before me and will continue to do so long after I’ve graduated from high school. Everyone has their ways of achieving success. Some people may have done it differently, but the way I’ve balanced being a student athlete seem pretty successful to me.