The burdens which students face at school can come in all shapes and sizes. From classes to clubs, students feel all types of pressure around them. One of the other potential sources of stress for students could come in through the world of athletics.

Sports themselves can be seen as stressful to many people. There is constant physical exertion, a pressure to succeed from your teammates, and the massive time dedication. However, this is not to say that these pressures are a bad thing. The ability to work cohesively as a team and manage stress through exercise and discipline are all traits which could be applicable both on and off the field.

Mary Cadogan, a senior and captain of WA Girls’ Varsity Lacrosse as well as a varsity soccer player, has a way of managing herself in a way where she can make the best use of her time.

“I pretty much like doing sports during school because it helps me get [my] stuff done better because I procrastinate less by having more of a set schedule. Last year for lacrosse, and this year for soccer, practices started at 2:30, right after school, so it didn’t give me time to meet with teachers. A lot of times I have to wake up earlier to come in in the morning as opposed to staying after. I feel more productive and it’s a good stress release to play [these] sports,” Cadogan said.

Cadogan said that it was best for her to realize when she needed to sacrifice sports time for student time. This included occasionally missing team dinners and re-evaluating her schedule. Being a team captain on the girls’ lacrosse team, Cadogan also has to balance her other added duties.

“You have to organize a lot of the fundraisers, get the apparel, organize the indoor leagues that we do in the off-season, along with the off-season training. And then, during the season, just motivating the team, [and] meeting with the coach about things to improve,” Cadogan stated.

Olivia Vallone, a senior doing multiple sports including track, girls’ hockey, and field hockey, talked about how her sports tie into her schoolwork and how it affected her and her teammates.

“I really like my sports. At some points, when other people in the team are stressed about the academic life and that affects the whole team’s vibe, then it kind of gets to me. But overall, I’m someone who really is passionate about my sports and I look forward to the time in it,” Vallone said.

Another unanimous consensus from each interviewee was the assertion that the peer pressures that they faced while playing sports was one of the healthy stresses that helped the teams have cohesion and work more closely together.

Freshman ice hockey player Sarah Thompson said that “it depends” whether peer pressure can be good or bad, explaining that sometimes teammates needed the occasional stressor to keep the team motivated.

However, this is not all to say that school mixed with sports can’t get stressful at times. Freshman Aidan Stafford, one of the players on the boys’ freshman soccer team talked about how school can creep up on you unless you stay on top of it.

“I mostly try to make a plan beforehand as to when assignments are done and what I should do, whether it’s on the bus ride to games or at home after practice,” Stafford said.

Stafford went on to emphasize the importance of maintaining control of a schedule, and prioritizing schoolwork.

“If you have a really big assignment coming up just try to prepare, and make a plan, and remember that it’ll be over by June,” Stafford finished.

Junior Max Bombardieri, a lineman on the Varsity Football team, felt that sports provided a sort of schedule to his day, and helped him stay on task.

“I feel like sports allows me to get into a routine, a schedule, and I just go through that schedule every day,” Bombardieri said.

Bombardieri said that there were times where it could be a little challenging balancing schoolwork and sports but that his coaches were understanding to the fact that school comes first, and that if he needed any extra time or help planning he could come to them.

All of these athletes face the struggle of balancing their time, whether for good or bad, but they all seem to manage to fit in their activities and get the best possible outcome from it.

“You just kind of have to know how to stay balanced,” Cadogan said.