It appears that the secret for the seniors to survive for the season, is time management. After interviewing several senior athletes, they commonly shared their daily routine as follows.
A typical day in the life of a student athlete consists of an early start and a late finish. On the daily basis, an athlete may wake up from as early as 5 a.m. to attend the first workout of the day. After that they will attend classes. Some athletes may need to do the second workout in the middle of the day. Then they go back to classes or spend time completing homework. Although, depending on the sport, there will even be a third workout of the day!
Rebecca Olivieri’18, a women’s basketball player, shared her daily schedule with the Wire. As she wrote, her typical day in offseason starts with 7 a.m. by lifting with the member group on the team. After that, she will head back to her room and get ready for classes. As a biology major, Olivieri has morning classes and afternoon labs. Therefore, she usually starts her homework and goes to professors’ office hours in the afternoon before the night practice, which starts at 6 p.m. and lasts for two to three hours.
“We practice six days out of the week [for] about three hours. Once games begin in mid-November we will typically have two to three games per week and practice three to four days a week. We also lift and do workouts three times a week…therefore, the weekends are a really important time [to] do work to catch up on anything [I] may not have had time to do during the week because of practice.” said Olivieri.
Similarly, Everett Bertrand’18, a Men’s Rugby player, also has a packed training and daily schedule as Olivieri has. During the interview, Everett laid out his schedule and said, “[We] usually have practice three or four times each week at night. For Monday, we practice [on] Clark Field from 5-7 [p.m.] and after the practice; I will go to the gym.”
As the typical schedule listed above, there is not a lot of room for them to waste time or procrastinate. All athletes must practice and learn how to successfully maintain their grades and spot on their athletic team at the same time.
So, what is the top secret of they have for dealing with this busy schedule? Speaking on this question, Bertrand said, “The more homework I have, the busier I keep. [So] it makes [the] week go by faster. [Furthermore], when I play Rugby, it gives me incentives to do work… everything has to be progressive and it needs to be done in a certain time period.”
Additionally, as a head RA on the campus in Keefe, Olivieri expressed her feelings of having limited time compared to other non-athletic students, but she said, “As a student-athlete you have a commitment to the team to be at every practice, game and meeting, we have to be dedicated to putting in extra work so we can win championships!” It is not hard to see that not only the skill of time management makes her successful, but also her hard work and enthusiasm which keep her on the top of the tight work rhythm.
Other factors motivate athletes in a large degree such as determination, the need and desire to become better, faster and stronger. Time management is the main characteristic for the athletic aspect because of eligibility of gaggling their time through a range of roles.
“I don’t know if I have a secret of managing the time. But using planer for prioritizing the schedule seems work for me!” Bertrand’18 said to the Wire.