Student Athletes

By Zion Ligi, October 19th 2024

While you're still playing in the younger leagues, you would think being a student athlete would be fun, until the weight of it all comes into play. You have many things to take care of & pay attention to; school, practice, healthy eating, homework, etc.

Playing sports is a fun way to stay active. But you can never be an athlete without being a student first. One thing you’ll face as an athlete worrying about schoolwork is procrastination. The feeling you can push things back to make more time for yourself, when in reality you’re digging your grave deeper than it needs to be.

If you aren’t able to meet the requirements of grades, you’ll be put in something called study hall. In study hall, you sit in class & get all your failing work done as soon as possible. If not for study hall, many of us who would have bad grades that would stop us from playing the sport we love. Even if you’re good at your sport & college scouts decide to look at you for recruitment, the very first thing they care about is grades, which being a good player won’t make up for.

The best solution is to always be ahead of schoolwork so then you don’t have to worry about bad grades. If you just skip class & never pay attention, you might fail. Then you'll experience one of the craziest games called “catch up” which is the worst game you can get involved in. If your one of the players that have perfect grades, go around & help everyone else on your team so that you & your friends can play the sport you guys all love.

If I were to give advice to younger athletes who have yet to go to high school, I’d tell them to remember that being a student comes first before being an athlete.