Tahlia Scherer, Blogs Editor
@tscherer_courant
The student athlete can be found trudging through the hallways with two backpacks slung over their shoulder, rushing to the bag drop before the first class begins. The student athlete can be found leaving early from last period to get to the team bus on time. The student athlete can be found half asleep in class, exhausted from practice and a late night of homework. Oftentimes however, these silent struggles of student athletes go largely unnoticed and overlooked by the rest of the school population. Student athletes surround us, even if we don’t know it.
Senior captain of the Girls Swim and Dive team and life-long swimmer Kelci Haley finds that her experience as a student athlete can be culminated in a singular word: balance. “Being a student athlete means balancing my commitment to my team’s success through attendance, and trying my best in every practice alongside a heavy academic course load where I am able to participate and engage fully with my teachers and peers.”
As Kelci reflects on her time here at the high school, she finds that the time-management and self-discipline required of student athletes, like herself, can often be overlooked. “People might not realize the difficulty for student athletes to juggle many different extracurriculars along with schoolwork while also giving one hundred percent in every aspect.”
Freshman star athlete James McInerney believes that the work and dedication that student athletes put in behind the scenes can be easily ignored. “Something people underestimate is just how busy student athletes really are and how stressful it can be when school and sports are put together. A bad day of classwork and you’re sad at practice, or a bad game and you’re angry at school for a couple days,” he said. “You don’t have a lot of free time unless it’s the weekend, which can be tough as well.”
Sophomore multisport athlete Paige Place draws attention to the fact that student athletes must also balance their social lives in addition to academics and sports. “I think that people overlook the social aspect of sports. I am away most weekends or have games so I can’t always hang out with my friends.”
Being a student athlete requires effective time management skills and scheduling. Kelci believes that being a student athlete has forced her to improve these skills. “I’ve gotten a lot better at being able to manage my time effectively because swimming helps me to stay on a consistent schedule of when I have to work and when I have time to relax,” Kelci said.
James takes advantage of his free time, such as study halls, to manage his course load. “My busy schedule has forced me to get things done as efficiently as possible, like homework. I have to work hard during study halls or directly after practice, otherwise it will stack up over time and be difficult to counter.”
Paige finds that having to juggle school and sports has made her more successful. “Having a busy schedule has made me more productive,” she said. “When I don’t have anything after school I get less work done than the days when I do have something. When I have sports I am aware of my free time, but when I don’t have sports, I take my free time for granted and relax instead of doing homework.”
“Sports and school together can completely drain you.”
James mcinerney, ’26
Student athletes are forced to make sacrifices in order to be successful in multiple aspects of their lives. “A unique struggle that I face being a student athlete, is splitting my time between school and other sports,” Paige said. “For example, I’ll skip a practice to study for a test the next day, which annoys my coach. On the other hand, I might have to make up a test I forsake for a tournament, which then annoys my teacher.”
In addition to navigating the perpetual push and pull of sports, James finds that mentally, when the two are combined, student athletes are left tired and depleted of energy at the end of the day. “Student athletes have to deal with the lack of energy that often occurs during a season. Sports and school together can completely drain you,” James said.
In addition to their personal motivation, the sports culture in New Canaan impacts student athletes immensely. “The student athlete culture in New Canaan has motivated me. There are so many athletes in the school and it’s nice to know that a majority of people in your class also had practice last night and also finished the homework,” Paige said.
The wide population and variety of student athletes in New Canaan serves as motivation for James. “I am motivated by the student athlete culture in New Canaan because I am surrounded by kids in the same situation as me who also want to be great. By being in this environment, I am pushed to be my best because I realize I can do it too.”
Despite the colossal expectations placed on student athletes, the reward that results from their hard work makes it all worth it. “Seeing the success and happiness of my team as a whole that is created by being supportive of one another and pushing each other to be our best in the pool makes the hard work worth it. For swimming, being with my teammates running down the deck cheering each other is what energizes the whole team,” Kelci said.
