SAN JOSE,CALIF — I’d like to share my experience with managing school work and sports during my least stressful year at Silver Creek High School.

I’ve never tried a sport until my senior year of high school. I decided to join wrestling since it piqued my interest the most. Once I joined I also had to make sure to keep my grades consistent in order to continue wrestling. I was doing a decent job of keeping track of my work and still being able to have fun with my life. It all just comes down to your time management/lifestyle.

If possible I make sure to complete my homework in class. If not I would have a set time after my post practice routine. I would set aside any other activities like playing video games. Since keeping my grades consistently above the threshold was more important than video games. You will lose a bit of sleep but since the benefits outweigh the cost it’ll be worth it in the long run. 

I had my friend,Benjamin Nguyen, speak about how important it is to maintain a good sleep schedule when it comes to sports. He expressed that, “During my junior year I had a really bad sleep schedule. I would end up sleeping around 3 hours each day. I would be consumed by procrastination but still wouldn’t have a care in the world. Maintaining that sleep schedule would slowly wear my mental and physical health down. I felt sluggish everyday and my movements would be slow. Even my teammates were starting to notice. Once my senior season started I decided to cut my main distraction, video games. After I did that my sleep schedule was back to 6-8 hours. I felt better than before and also had the best season so far.”  

In order to play your sport you must maintain certain grades. At some point my grades did start to slip. My coach called me out about it since I had to keep my grades up. My coach told us that school work comes first then your sport. So I focused on my studies and prioritized the longer assignments. Being able to complete your homework on time is crucial to your sleep schedule. Being able to rest as much as possible is extremely important, especially in high physically demanding sports. 

Depending on how much you enjoy your sport, will affect how much you prioritize certain things. Some people fully commit their lifestyle into their sport and others will just play the sport for fun. Figure out what type of person you are when it comes to your lifestyle and sport of choice. But always make sure you enjoy what you are doing first.