For my final blog post I wanted to write on something that is very important to me and hits closer to home for me—student athletes. People who don’t play sports don’t understand how much of a strain playing a sport in high school whether at the JV or Varsity level is on a high schooler. Obviously they assume that it is very physically tolling, but rarely do they take in to consideration how mentally taxing it can be and how utterly time consuming it is. And this becomes very difficult on students who are trying to play one or multiple sports and balance that with good grades. I played football, soccer, and wrestled and experienced firsthand how exhausting this can be. Additionally if I wanted to do anything fun or any kind of socializing or going out I had to keep my Grades at least in the B range for my parent’s seal of approval. My brother has experienced this difficulty even more so than me as he not only plays football, soccer, and track, but he is also the Class President and Vice President of the student body, and he is on the honor society for grades. What I’m trying to get at here is that students take on a lot during their tenure at school and some students take on more than others. I feel like teachers should take this into account when they assign their class a deadline or test or quiz. Teachers should consider that after most students go home and begin working on the copious amount of work assigned for the day, student athletes have at least another 3 hours of practice before they can come home and shower and then begin the school work assigned. Or consider a game, even if the game is home it is a huge ordeal that takes up the majority of the night, and the last thing an athlete is ready or desiring to do when they get home from a midweek soccer game or wrestling tournament is start writing a paper or studying for a Math test. Think about away games, some are as far away as Charleston, Augusta, or Myrtle Beach, there and back with a slug fest of sport in between and then the athlete gets home and has the exact same thing expected of him or her as the student who was able to start immediately after school ended. And when I say that teachers should “consider” or “take into account” student athletes what I mean is they shouldn’t just feel sorry for them but they should do something that gives them the opportunity to succeed. I believe teachers should extend deadlines, work with coaches, and be flexible on their assignments when it comes to athletes in their class. This may seem like favoritism towards the Jock but it’s not; this is fairness and emblematic of the equality that teachers strive for. Teachers need to realize just how much more student athletes often have to do versus the non-sport playing student. I understand this may cause some difficulty, but I think it is a necessary endeavor.
Mitchell Watford
Mitchell Watford