With sports springing into action this season, it’s going to become difficult for some students to balance sports, school, clubs, and everything else on their plate.  For many Air Academy students, spring’s arrival means both nicer weather and preparing for a balancing act to keep up with the sports, tests, and life in general that will pick up pace this month.

Marie Cloonan, an Air Academy sophomore, swims varsity for the girls swim team while maintaining her good grades.  She says it helps to keep up a good schedule and to not let things like tv or social media be a distraction. “It’s takes a lot of focus with determination in order to balance school and sports. I find that, often, there are times where after getting home from sports it is difficult to do homework and find the focus/mental strength to do so. I balance my school and sports by making sure to stay focused on one task at a time. I save school for school, and sports for sports.”

Marie’s advice holds true for anyone looking to participate in spring sports and still maintain their GPA.  One of the best solutions to make the best use of your time is cutting back on your social media use.  The less distractions you have, the more work you can get done, and social media was built to be a distraction.  Moreover, especially for athletes, sleep is vital to be in your best shape.  Any student can tell you, however, that if you have an activity that runs until 5:00 PM and you still have homework, an early bedtime doesn’t happen.  One of the best solutions is to set a bedtime.  When you have an established schedule, your time is organized and therefore more work gets done.  Another tip that can help with organization is to break up your work load throughout the week so that most of your workload isn’t dumped onto one night.  With these changes, you hopefully won’t be forced into a 2 AM cram session. 

Most athletes at the school play one sport and that’s enough for them.  Jenna Mourn is a cheerleader who also runs track in the spring, which also means no down time.  On top of this, Jenna takes honors classes and maintains good grades.  She says that the determination she feels while playing sports carries over into her school work.  “Being a student athlete can be really difficult to do sometimes,” Jenna mentioned, going on to say that, “Somehow, the stress of school seems to be toned down by the fun of sports, so it all balances really well.”

According to the NCAA,  students that play a sport are more likely to have a higher GPA than those who don’t. Grades can be positively influenced by sports because the mentality of an athlete is to work hard and be the best you can be, and that is mind set they bring to all aspects of their lives, including sports.

Max Raber, an athlete at Air Academy, is in all honors classes, art classes, is in the football program, and succeeds in all of these aspects of his life. “Balancing school and sports can be difficult a lot of the time, but I get a sense of accomplishment when I succeed at both.” He loves his sport more than anything, but he also loves to feel accomplished in everything that he does.  

The balancing act that students have to go through for the things they love can be discouraging at times, but in the end it’s the best feeling in world when you know you’ve done well both academically and physically.  Remember to hit the books as much as you hit the field this spring.  Have a stellar season Kadets!