Balancing sports and school is a test of time management and priorities. Student athletes must balance the sports they play as well as their school agendas. Emmalee Frederick (‘26), who plays volleyball and soccer for Willow Glen High School, says that student-athletes “have to make time for homework by working efficiently,” This can mean dedicating a specific amount of time to do homework and making sure that it gets completed, even if it means you must skip out on doing something fun with your friends.
Most of the athletes at Willow Glen leave classes for their sports regularly. As games and meets are usually towards the end of the day, student-athletes can end up missing the same fifth and sixth-period classes repeatedly. This can cause them to fall behind in those classes if they do not follow up with their teacher and peers about the work that they need to complete for the day that they miss. Jaye Dolan (‘27) mentioned that she regularly had to leave Art and Biology for water polo, and similarly, Frederick missed Chemistry every other week during the volleyball and soccer seasons. To keep a good grade, both recommend keeping in touch with teachers to get the classwork that you missed and asking classmates for the material that was gone over in class
While many students at Willow Glen High School commit to at least one sport, some students enjoy participating in multiple. Students are usually more likely to participate in sports that correlate with their committed sport. For example, people who are committed to playing field hockey may want to play lacrosse. As well as water polo players may want to swim during the spring season to stay in shape. This may mean these student-athletes may not have much of a break between the two seasons, giving them less catch-up time for their work. This can cause them to fall further behind in school. Frederick was asked if school has ever affected her sports performance. She responded by saying that “when schoolwork piles on top of practices and games it can be stressful, and getting home late from practice does not help the matter”. Although playing sports can be time-consuming, Frederick emphasized that“sports are worth it, they make it so you have less time, but still have a positive impact, [and] the good outweighs the bad.”
