By SOPHIA SIRUCHEK
Balancing academics, sports, and sometimes work, can be incredibly stressful for scholar-athletes. These students often face a unique set of challenges that can make managing their time and stress difficult.
The pressure that is placed on the shoulders of scholar students is immense. Teachers often expect too much out of their students and push them to always be the best. Scholar athletes tend to feel more pressure than their classmates; not only do they have their teachers pushing them to perfection, but after classes are done, they have their coaches telling them they need to be the best on the field. They are expected to keep high grades and remain eligible for sports; this means they must dedicate significant time to study and completing assignments and preparing for exams. The rigorous demands of their sports schedules often leave them with limited time for academics leading to late nights and early mornings.
In addition to the academic pressure, the physical and mental demands of the sport can be exhausting. Training sessions, games, and travel can take up a large portion of their time and energy. This can lead to fatigue which makes it harder to focus on school work. The pressure to perform well in sports can also contribute to stress and anxiety.
Another stressful anxiety that plagues students is money. If a scholar athlete has a job, the challenge becomes even greater. Juggling work responsibilities with school and sports can be extremely overwhelming. This added responsibility can lead to a burnout and decrease performance in all areas. Eventually this may lead to falling out of love for the sport and not having motivation to do school work.
The combination of academic, athletic and work commitments can create high stress environments for scholar athletes. It's important for them to have strong time management skills. Support systems and strategies for stress relief to maintain a healthy balance is extremely important, but may be very difficult to form.
A junior at Washingtonville High School, Dominic Perone, often struggles with being a scholar athlete. “Being a scholar-athlete takes a lot of hard work and dedication. I often stay up late after games or practices making sure I get my schoolwork done on time. Balancing school and sports can cause me to be overwhelmed and very stressed at times. On game days, I have to focus on playing my best, but as soon as the game is over I have to rush home and get straight to work on my assignments. It is very tough to do and affects my mental health but if I want to maintain my grade I have to deal with the stress.”
Mollie Meffert, a senior at Washingtonville High School, is also a very hard-working student athlete. “It is really difficult to maintain my grades while competing in varsity sports. Trying to stay focused on academics while being physically tired leads to a lot of stress and mental exhaustion. On top of that, trying to fit in extracurricular activities adds an entirely new level of stress. Overall, learning how to balance my time is a part of being a scholar athlete and in the end the work is worth the reward.”
Ultimately, student athletes tend to be overlooked because of their incredible performance, as they are very hard workers and passionate about what they are doing. People do not realize that in the back of their minds they are dealing with a lot of stress and pressure that should be more acknowledged than it is.
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