Being a high school athlete is a great lifetime experience. Getting the chance and playing with your friends, having the crowd cheering your name, and competing for a great cause makes it enjoyable. The fans, teachers, your friends and your family might think being a high school athlete is easy, but they don’t know the story behind-the-scenes.

The life of a student athlete is far different from the life of regular student. With practices and games topped with homework and important tasks for school, being a student athlete is challenging.

Allison Brown, a member of the varsity drill team elaborates on school and sports.

“I make sure I always have my homework done,” she said. “I usually do it during class, but I go to practice for about three hours, and usually just manage homework from there.”

There are times when athletes come home from a late game and have to decide whether sleep or homework is more important.

“I usually choose the homework over sleep because I know I’ll be flipping out if I don’t do it,” Brown said. “I just have to settle with being tired.”

Coaches understand this struggle for their students because some coaches have been in the same situation before.

Math teacher and assistant coach for the Pattonville girls’ varsity basketball team, Ms. Kaitlin Childs, was a former basketball player at Maryville University, and feels for her athletes.

“It’s a constant battle, no matter how well you use your class time and manage it, you feel like you’re never getting enough sleep because there is a lot going on like practice and games,” Childs said. “I would love for my athletes to get more sleep, and be better rested, but it’s a valuable lesson to learn. You’re going to have to do things when you’re tired.”

Tired is a word many student-athletes use to explain their life.

Kendall Battle, a 4-sport student-athlete has a lot to say about the workload.

“Since I play four sports throughout the school year, there isn’t much free time. You can never finish homework, hangout with friends, and sleep. It’s all about playing the sports, there is always one thing that can’t be done, and usually that’s sleep,” Battle said. “There really is no balance between sports, school, and a social life, and that’s both physically and mentally demanding.”

With a paper poll, 50 students were asked “Should student athletes be given extended time for assignments on game days?”

The results came back with 66 percent of students saying yes, students should be given extended time for assignments on game day, while 34 percent of students said no.

Give your opinion on this poll down below: