Townsend Harris High School has some of the most rigorous academic programs in the city, as well as a strong participation in PSAL sports. As PSAL athletes begin the third month of school practices remaining frequent, an important question arises: How do our student athletes balance academic demands while pursuing sports?
After interviewing student-athletes from varying teams, a commonality with each student was that athletes need to find unique schedules that help them to find their own balance.
Sophomore Aidan Ng from the Boys Fencing Team said he finds his balance by “understanding time management, setting priorities straight, and keeping [yourself] organized.” Making plans in advance using agendas and setting time limits for each of your tasks were both brought up as effective ways of completing all your errands in an efficient manner.
Even though athletes make themselves an agenda based on their own demands, time is limited on late nights. Junior Ariana Zorpas who plays catcher/outfield for the softball team said her in-season days are “practice or a game for about 2 hours (which varies), followed by a quick nap and then studying/homework, getting finished around midnight.”
Ariana is aware of the dangers of sleep deprivation, as she then said she knows “it’s bad because it’s an endless loop of being tired, making me even more stressed out at school.” Not only affecting her ability to focus the next day in class, she also said that her softball performance is impacted when she is overworked.
Sophomore Emmie Elizabeth recalls her freshman year while playing for the girls flag football team, finding that her performance was not consistently affected by her workload, as she said “when you get to practice or a game you leave the stress of work and tests outside the field.”
Although she sometimes has to leave practice early to catch up on academics, managing her time is best done by “making a to-do list throughout the school day,” she said. Typically making it to bed at eleven, Emmie said she gets a lot done during lunch and class so she cuts back on the list.
