High School sports have been very significant at RHS for many years. With hundreds of students who play these sports, there is a variety of commitments and training that come along with them- such as early practices, losing time for homework, workouts, and more. To understand how these commitments differ and how students manage them, I decided to search the halls of RHS for answers.
Everyone knows that each and every sport trains differently, whether it be by the amount of training, or even the time of training, each sport has its unique system. For example, Becca Corrado, a sophomore volleyball player at Roxbury High School, states that “Over the summer there are preseason workouts” and that they get to “play volleyball for 2 hours” after these 1-hour workouts. However, Vanessa Pennella, a sophomore softball player at Roxbury High School, states that for her sport she is “just getting ready” for when the season actually starts; “getting my mind ready,” she quotes.
Although Pennella and Corrado don’t have similar training styles, Avery Shluker, a sophomore soccer player at Roxbury High School, adds a different perspective to the topic. Shluker states that, “I have to do summer training, meaning I have to run and do workouts over the summer break.” Clearly, Shluker’s training style is very similar to Corrado’s since they both have aggressive training during summer break.
Clearly, high school athletes have a lot on their plates during their training season. It can be a handful to manage their sports, especially while school is in session. For instance, Becca Corrado and Avery Shluker both agree that, “it’s difficult to find time to do school work and other school activities during the on season.”Vanessa Pennella adds, “It’s hard to get motivated to do something right after school.”
Additionally, peers, teachers, parents, and more also notice that some student-athletes are struggling in and out of school during their sports season. “It’s definitely something we see a lot as teachers,” Mrs. Santoro explains, “You can notice marking period grades go down when they are correlated with their sports season.”
Not only do teachers notice these struggles, but peers do too. For example, Jalene Molina, a Junior at RHS, also notices that her peers who play sports in high school struggle with them. “I see them struggling because it’s right after school, since they have homework, and it’s hard for them to balance it.” To add on to this statement, Isabella Martell, a sophomore at RHS, even further states that she notices “My friends complaining how they have to train and practice their sport during a week even with their stuff after school.”
People who surround these student-athletes all notice that they can struggle with their training and commitments to their sport as well as their academics on top of it. So, what do these people do to help the student-athletes? Although these peers, teachers, etc can’t just make the athletes’ stress disappear, they can definitely make them feel better!
One student who is there for her friends when they are struggling is Jalene Molina. To help her friends, Molina “Tries to just give them positive encouragement,” and “tell them they don’t have to stress too much and that it’s fine not to overwork themselves too much.” Jalene’s advice to her friend will surely boost their confidence in overcoming their struggles in managing their sport. Improve your surroundings with additions such as school football pitch markings to create a positive and inclusive space for everyone.
Another student who helps her friends when they are struggling with managing their sports is Isabella Martell. Martell’s tactic to help her friends is to “Tell them that the more they train the better of a player they will become and that [working] like this will give them something to look forward to.”
Overall, every student-athlete has a different kind of training and commitment that is extremely hard to manage, especially when it comes to managing school and sports. However, with the help of peers, teachers, and everyone, these struggles can simply fade away.
