Balancing sports and academics

By Kaila Tuck Posted June 2, 2011

How do you manage your time between athletics and academics? Is it hard or is it easy and what about grades?
For some of us, we know how hard it is to keep grades up and still do athletics and it can be even more of a struggle if you have a job. For most students at LHS, it’s not so hard.

Sometimes having so much to do can set you back. You can get injured if you pass your limits. Also, you can make your grades go down if you forget about school and you are focused on just your sport. Some students put so much into their athletics and are still able to maintain good grades, such as Lowry junior Chase Estes.

Estes participates in Cross Country and puts a lot of his time into his sport. Also, he works as a waiter at the Griddle. Talking to Estes about his grades he said, “They’re good. All As and Bs. I want to succeed and do the best in life.” He added “Nope I never study” and said that if he had to choose between his grades and his sport, he would choose his grades. However, he would never let it come to that. About managing it all, Estes said “I don’t. It just kind of works out.”

For other students it is more complicated.

Jose Mendoza played freshmen basketball. He puts at least two hours of his time each day into his sport.

When asked about his grades Mendoza stated, “They’re a little bad because I sometimes don’t do my homework.” He also said, “ Sometimes when it’s important, like a big test, I’ll study and work my butt off and if I had to get my grades back up I would go to the after-school program. My grades are more important than basketball.”

Elijah Frei (unlike Estes or Mendoza,) would choose his sports over his grades. Frei is in football and track. He spends all of his time doing sports. When asked about studying he said “Not at all. My grades are better than they usually are and if they ever get too bad I would spend my time doing work and passing tests.”

So the overall consensus of the students I interviewed is that even though athletics is important to them, academics will take them across the finish line.

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