Social life, school, and athletics: pick two and then decide which will be your top priority. Here at Rocklin High School, this seems to be a choice that many must make. With all the sports available, many choose to become student athletes.

This is a difficult task. Many of us choose to take hard classes, because, of course, it looks good on college apps. Then we also need to look well-rounded and involved, so we join sports, clubs, and ASB or CSF. Practice is usually about 2-3 hours long each weekday, not including the tournaments on the weekends that some teams endure. On top of that, homework takes a few hours to complete. This makes some student athletes feel like they need to make a decision, school or sports.

Assistant principal and athletics director Mr. Stewart, wants to make sure that doesn’t happen.

“At the coaches meeting, I outline how coaches can help athletes with their schoolwork, using plus period and doing grade checks. We tell parents at the parent information meeting that they are ‘student athletes’ and the student is always first.”

Though this may be true, athletics seems to come before sports for some. Junior water polo player Mikaila Keyes says, “It can sometimes feel as though athletics is demanding too much and expecting it to be a priority, but it’s really on the individual to make a judgement and decide if they maybe need to skip a practice or two to catch up”.

For fall and spring sports especially, athletes miss school to go to games “since they require facilities that the school doesn’t have,” according to Stewart.

Keyes says, “Missing school for sports is definitely hard when it comes to my more challenging classes, but it is manageable. As the season comes to an end, more classes are missed and to be frank, it’s pretty stressful to get caught up.”

Thankfully, Rocklin High School has plus period. It is a great way for student athletes to go in for help or to catch up on what they have missed. Stewart says that Google calendars are also set up for students to easily monitor what they are missing, so they don’t fall too far behind.

Sometimes, you might even need to schedule a time to get help outside of plus, “Talk to the teacher to find out alternatives and suggestions,” Stewart said.

Though we are called student athletes, it is unavoidable for some to feel as though they are athlete-students. “It’s always a difficult balance and for a lot of students, athletics are the hook for why they like school. With that, priorities can get out of proportion,” said Stewart.