The Grind Doesn't Stop
By Nick Adams, Tate Luckey, Seth Cianfoni, and Virgilio Garcia
From Coach Smith’s “MOOOVE” to the Dawg Pound’s “Big G”s and “Little O”s, the atmosphere of the big game is just one of the aspects that a student athlete has to adjust to. For many of Male’s student athletes, another common adjustment is learning how to juggle so many aspects of their life. Among the approximately 2000 students there are 22 sports a student can join. One will find that there are truly no off days for our Bulldog athletes, and they must manage quite a bit, including their school work, mental and physical health, and their social life.
Student athletes have a full time commitment to this school. They are full time students held to Male’s high academic standards. Seven hours of class five days a week, many face 20 to 30 minutes of homework for each subject each night. Many have good grades not only due to their personal drive, but to play the sport they love. Several sports require minimum GPAs to be eligible to play. According to Scotty Vilums, junior wrestler, wrestlers are held to a 2.5 GPA minimum in order to participate in events. The Male soccer program was held to a 3.0 GPA in order to step onto the field. Athletes are also held to a standard of attendance. Per Coach Chandler, if two days of practice are missed then you aren’t allowed to wrestle the following weekend.
After a mentally draining day at school, athletes must attend training. For one-two hours our good athletes are pushing themselves to their limits, and our superstars are going beyond their limits. After going through intense training athletes will get home in time for a late dinner and a long night of homework. The next day they get up and do it all over again. “Breakfast is very important;” senior track star and recent EKU commit Bryson Steed said. His teammates, Jerome Bullock and Kendrick James (12) had similar thoughts,
“You gotta get your homework done, and then make sure you get enough sleep.. it’s tough sometimes.”
Kendrick understands you really need to “stay focused” and find this balance.
It’s hard to stay focused, though, if you can’t get enough sleep. The average high school student athlete gets to bed between 11 pm and 1 am according to the National Sleep Foundation. Student athletes are in motion all day, sun-up to sun down, and most struggle with maintaining a social life. Junior field hockey player Claire Mechlin said,
“It can be hard, but if you really want to, you find the time for friends.”
Bullock, Steed, and James told us it’s gotten easier for them as they’ve gotten older, but it’s all about prioritizing what’s important. Jasmine Miller, senior softball national champ, notes that she takes advantage of her Study Skills class and completes her work there so she won’t be as overloaded when game-day arrives.
The standards of Male’s student athletes are exceptionally high- forget just parents and teachers, athletes have the expectations of coaches and teammates and pressure from the student body. What’s important among all the athletes we talked to is the lessons they’ve learned.
“Academics are even more important. You have to put in a lot of work outside of school, and I would be willing to trade [good grades] for anything related to athletics.” Steed said.
“I can usually fall back to my coach or parents. It’s nice to have a support system.” James replied.
For all of our student athletes out there, how do you handle ‘the grind”?
