The balancing act

For student-athletes trying to progress to the next level, effective time management is not an option, it’s a requirement. According to the NCAA, only 6.4% of high school athletes make it to the Division I, II, or III levels overall.

Every hour spent practicing, networking, and on schoolwork matters. As training, games, and recruitment clash with academics, a rigorous system must be created, leaving little room for error. One example is Carlmont senior and Dartmouth diving commit Adam Man. Not only does time spent playing the sport interfere with school, but so does the actual recruiting process. Receiving multiple offers, choosing which school to commit to was a time-consuming effort in itself.

“Visiting the schools was difficult because it was pretty long. I had to fly out to the East Coast and schedule the trips together, skipping all that school and then having to make up tests and explain it to my teachers. Just kind of time managing and balancing everything,” Man said.

A study conducted by PBS found that 66% of Division I athletes in the Pac-12 conference reported that the most challenging part of being an athlete was the lack of free time, with 54% of athletes saying they didn’t have enough time to study for tests. 71% of student-athletes also said that their time commitments prevent them from getting enough sleep, affecting both their academic and athletic performances.

For high school athletes, the time commitments are not as intense, but many echo the same sentiments, as the dedication required to compete for a spot on a college roster often leaves them feeling as if there just aren’t enough hours in a day. 

Carlmont junior Rohan Yadavalli juggles school and soccer, all while attracting interest from high-profile schools such as Caltech and MIT.

“In my case, it’s mandatory that I keep my academics up because I’m talking to academically rigorous schools. So even though I train four times a week, I still need to do things like take a lot of AP classes and study for the SAT to make sure that I’m eligible to play,” Yadavalli said.

Carefully managing his schedule, Yadavalli begins his days at 6:30 a.m. and often ends them with late-night study sessions, not sleeping until midnight.

“I’ll stay up late studying after practice, or sometimes I’ll have to skip practice and study for a test for a harder class, like AP Physics,” Yadavalli said.

With Yadavalli having to take the train to practice, he makes clever compromises to fulfill his overlapping responsibilities. 

“When I have to take multiple-hour drives to play or when I’m on the train, I spend a lot of that time doing homework and getting my other commitments out of the way so that I can focus on performing at my best,” Yadavalli said.

Likewise, to help him train effectively, Zach Luzzo, a senior at Carlmont committed to St. Olaf for baseball, created a plan for himself to get schoolwork done before doing anything else.

“When I’m working out, I don’t want a thought in the back of my head that ‘oh, I have to turn in this homework assignment,’ so I like to get all my work done for the week, and then I can go about my business working out and getting rest,” Luzzo said.