STRIKING A BALANCE
Student athletes say tug of war between obligations is tough but worth it
“Astudent first and an athlete second” — that’s what many student athletes are told when they tell teachers about their struggles to stay afloat in school while managing one or more sports.
According to USA Today, 35.2% of all New Mexico high schoolers participated in sports during the 2022-23 school year. For many, taking on a sport while balancing school presents a lot of difficulty — but for athletes who have a passion for their sport, it’s often worth it.
Plenty of research shows there are benefits to students participating in sports. According to Athletics Weekly, students who participate in sports tend to have higher GPAs, along with improved physical and mental health.
Sports can be a pathway to a brighter future — improving résumés and sometimes opening the door to college admissions for teens.
The New Mexico Athletic Association Foundation has provided nearly 350 student athletes scholarships to attend colleges and universities of their choice since 2007, according to its website.
However, many students say balancing sports with school is easier said than done.
“Most nights we have away games and the next day at school I’ll be tired, and at night after practice I’m so tired that I fall asleep without doing my homework,” Pecos freshman Emily Yara, who plays volleyball and softball and also participates in track and wrestling, said in a recent interview.
There’s not a lot of time to do school work, sleep, take care of at home responsibilities, and do school work when students are getting home at times ranging from 9 p.m.-2 a.m., according to several students who recently spoke to Generation Next.
It’s not as easy as just quitting though. For some athletes, sports are the main motivation to do well in school.
“[Sports] make me want to keep my grades up, so I can actually do sports,” Pecos Independent Schools eighth grader Thomas Garcia told Gen Next.
Yara enjoys sports so much, it is often her sole motivator to try her best academically.
“There have been times that I’ve wanted to quit, but the only reason why I do good in school is to do sports,” she said.
For Garcia, lots of homework assignments can hinder academic success.
“Less homework would make it easier,” Garcia said.
Early dismissals for athletes are hard because that creates the whole issue of catching up on what they miss. Yara explained that this is the most difficult thing she experiences.
Pecos eighth grader Charlize Salls, who has participated in high school basketball as well as middle school volleyball and track this year, acknowledges sport schedules can cause players to miss important parts of class. In a recent interview, Salls said that teachers could take more steps to help athletes not miss so much content when they’re traveling for away games.
“We sometimes miss classes due to away games or meets, and we miss when new topics are introduced. That makes it kind of hard to keep up,” she said.
Even as some students struggle to keep up with sports and school at the same time in Pecos, they are making a splash. In 2023, the high school boys basketball team won state in its class for the fifth time. This year, the high school girls basketball team made it to the state quarterfinals, beating Lordsburg by 26 points.
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We sometimes miss classes due to away games or meets … when new topics are introduced. That makes it kind of hard to keep up.”
Pecos eighth grader Charlize Salls