When playing sports throughout the school year, a student is in a constant struggle between keeping up with school work and staying involved in the sport.

About 55.5% of high school students play a sport during school. Some play only one season a year while others play all year round. This can put a lot of stress on students to keep up with both their sports and school work at the same time. When asked how they handle both commitments, Pentucket junior, Jackie Kutcher, who does gymnastics four hours a day six days a week says, “I get work done in school, and I do classes that I can get work done faster in and work hard.”

Although it can be tough playing a sport, it could also help in many ways such as keeping one active, healthy, and for some students on track. Hailey Vlass says she has better grades while she runs because she feels the need to keep up with her work more than usual. This may also be because high school sports require certain grades to stay on the team all season.

Another aspect of playing a sport is the serious time commitment. Most school sports practice at least five to six days a week sometimes more and the practices last around two to three hours depending on the sport. According to Pentucket senior, Kassidy Kenifick the softball team practices up to seven days a week in addition to having practices before school at 5:00 am. She goes on to say, “I just go with the flow.”

Playing more than one sport requires even more commitment, work and drive to continue. Some students play up to three sports at one time whether that be three different teams for one sport or three completely different sports, both inside and outside of school. This results in over tired kids who don’t have any down time.

This also varies with different sports. Some sports or teams only practice a few days a week yet the work load still affects them just as much. Pentucket junior and dancer, Molly Rollins practices four days a week, and has competitions on the weekends. She says, “It’s hard because dance takes over my weekends and its five hours. It keeps me from having a want to do super well on homework and after school stuff.”

Playing a sport can be stressful, but it’s also fun for students because they get to socialize with friends and do something they love.