By GABRIELLE SAUPE– Sports Editor
Studying should be required and emphasized for student-athletes.
The average day for a student-athlete goes a little something like this: seven hours sitting in uncomfortable desks while course content goes in one ear and out the other; two hours of sports practice, and three hours of homework they’re too exhausted to complete.
varsity girls basketball players are required to study before practice.
After several strenuous hours spent at school and practice filled with brain-draining and muscle-straining activities, most high school students just want to go home, eat, sleep and relax. However, the annoying voice in their head reminds them of the loads of studying and homework they have been assigned.
Have you ever been assigned group work with a tired student-athlete as partner in class? We all know how that turns out.
“When I coached, I had a study hall. I personally think that (coaches) should invest that time. That way, it would ease the (student-athletes). When they went home, they wouldn’t have to (do homework). There should be a block of time where (athletes) are allowed to study,” Clarke Central High School principal Dr. Robbie P. Hooker said.
In order to provide this opportunity, Clarke Central High School girls head varsity basketball coach Carla Johnson requires a mandatory study hall for her team before afternoon practice, with hopes this time will instill in her student-athletes that academics comes before athletics.
“(The athletes) have to put in time for academics and take it seriously. One, they won’t be able to play if they don’t keep their grades up, and two, they just need to get into that habit of taking time out to study,” Johnson said.
Based on the other basketball team practice schedules and the availability of courts, Johnson must rotate court time with the JV teams, as well as the boys team, which enables her to give her athletes a dedicated study time before they move to the court. As a college basketball player at the University of Missouri-Columbia, Johnson was expected to put her books before the basketball. She expects her athletes to do the same.
“When I was playing college ball, we had mandatory study hall hours that we had to put in each week, whether it was with a tutor or somebody on the coaching staff,” Johnson said. “So I think that anyone aspiring to play at the next level needs to commit to studying.”
Many student-athletes dream of being professional athletes, but they forget to consider the fact that without studying and performing well in school, the chances of them moving on to the next level decreases greatly.
While reserving a time for study hall after school makes the student-athletes leave practice later, in exchange, they’re not lugging home a backpack full of incomplete work.
Look at it two ways: either get the work done before practice, or you have to leave practice with the painful reminder of the studying that needs to be done.
Completing it directly after school gives a student-athlete a better chance of actually getting it done.
