It’s important to keep up with your grades, especially if you want to get into a good college.  Most research has shown that students who play sports have a higher grade point average than non-student athletes. Studies from Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise found that student-athletes do 10% better in the core subjects.  Playing sports can have an impact on your grades, and vice versa.  Most schools don’t let their students play sports if their grades aren’t good.

Among the drawbacks that come with being a HS athlete is something that can also have a big effect on your grades:  the amount of time it takes up, and the subsequent effect it has on your sleep schedule. 

It’s important for student athletes to get the right amount of sleep, especially if you have a test the next day that you need to do well on, but that can be a struggle when you have homework to get done. 

It’s worse when you are playing more  than one sport at a time, like for both a school and a club. 

NPHS freshman Jiselle Mateo plays two sports. She does winter track after school and then on some days she goes to softball.

“It’s not that bad. It just depends on how much homework I have and on Thursdays I have speed and agility which is really hard so I try to get my homework done in school,” she said. 

It can be stressful for student athletes who have a lot of homework. Mateo mentions that it hasn’t affected her grades that much, but when it comes to her sleep schedule, it’s affected a lot. 

She noted that the start times of practices can be a factor:  “I like getting track over with after school. If you want to hangout with your friends it’s difficult when you get out of track later and don’t have much time, especially on school days and days when you have a lot of homework.” 

Mateo said it feels like it’s harder to get homework during her sports season.  Having a lot of homework and not much time to get it done will affect grades.  Having a study hall or sports study can be very helpful on days where you have a lot of homework and tests to study for. 

 Kayla Vargas said she preferred having practice right after school to get it over with. Some students, and parents of students, who play club sports have a difficult time, especially when the times overlap. 

“It was harder for my parents, sometimes I didn’t even have a ride,” said Vargas.