School, Sports, College Plans: How Do Senior Football Athletes Handle It All?
Senior football players are some of the most active students at Osbourn. Most of the time they have practice every school day and sometimes on the weekends. Practices can last up to 4 hours. Their practice ends up being mostly the team walking through and going over plays, and getting their techniques improved for their individual positions.
A football player’s schedule starts with going to school all day from 8-3:20 and then going to practice from 3:30-6:45. Sometimes practice will go past that time to almost 7:30. Their day is not over yet though. After school and practice, most of the time the seniors have homework and will also sometimes need to research or apply to colleges, which could take a while. There are days on the weekend where they practice from 10-1:30 on Saturdays, and on Sundays, they will have meetings 8:30-9-30 or longer to go over the game plan for that week.
With all of this non-stop activity, these seniors have a lot on their plates, and staying on top of it all can become very stressful and time-consuming. Players find themselves having less free time and little time to just relax. As teachers hand out more and more work, they have more things to worry about like tests, quizzes, and making sure assignments are submitted on time.
As the year progresses, colleges essays and scholarship applications also need attention and take up a lot of time. The players have to handle all of these tasks and obstacles; they need to stay mentally focused and manage their time wisely.
“I manage football, school, and getting prepared for college by taking it day by day, doing my school work and staying on top of everything. I have to focus on resting my body and also working out and having a great mindset,” said Nigel Burke.
“I have a plan of action. After going home from practice, I do my homework and make sure I have my college stuff done and make sure I’m determined to do that every day,” said Ernest Amoyaw.
Some of the senior football players have to prioritize themselves and school over football so they can manage their time and stress levels.
“When I have free time, I use music to calm down, relax, and give myself a break to think,” said Jahquez Salmon.
“Well, I haven’t felt ready to deal with college yet, but I handle managing it well. I’m a student first, then an athlete, so I worry about school more than football,” said Kiyon Boxley.
Most of the seniors have had to juggle school and football in hopes of better opportunities for college.
“I love the game of football and always wanted to play college ball and beyond. I want to help my parents with college and leave less stress on them,” said Ernest Amoyaw.
“It means a lot to be recruited and it’s not stressful; it’s another reason to keep working on myself,” said Jahquez Salmon.
“Having the feeling of college coaches watching me gives me the courage to keep working hard and to be better every day,” said Ernest Amoyaw.
The football seniors have a lot to handle and deal with, including school, college, practice, and football meetings. You would think their lives would get easier once the fall season is over, but they don’t. When the football season ends, that is the prime time for college visits, and recruiting begins to amp up, so there is a lot more work to be done.
My name is Nickolas Williams and I am in the 12th grade. I plan on covering sports in my articles and do most of the soundboard and editing on our show.
Aidan Kiefer • Sep 28, 2022 at 11:54 am
This article was very well written and really shows how it is to be a student athlete. It can be very exhausting mentally and physically, however if you truly love your sport, you will do anything it takes.
Madina Habib • Sep 26, 2022 at 9:53 am
This topic really shed some light on the struggle that seniors and athletes have to think about when they want to go to college. The stress they feel, especially when you notice that they practice for 4 hours, with the addition of the 7 hours of school. Loved this informative article!
Alondra Marquez • Sep 21, 2022 at 4:17 pm
The quotes are all good, this is something I was actually curious about the other day wondering how athletes are able to do it all at once and wondered how they managed it all. Great article
Yessica Corrales • Sep 21, 2022 at 2:15 pm
This article really gave a voice to senior athletes, it shows how much they have to do handle on a regular basis. There’s a good amount of quotes used in the article. It’s put together really well, overall its pretty good.
Alejandra Chavarria • Sep 21, 2022 at 2:15 pm
I think this article is important for people that are planning to play till their senior year. I think this is helpful to give an insight to freshman or anyone that joins the senior team.
Aziza Zarrincalaki • Sep 21, 2022 at 1:27 pm
I love how this article got so many quotes from seniors. This is such a under represented topic, this article did great covering the stressors of both football and being a senior in high school.
amelia breeden • Sep 21, 2022 at 12:11 pm
This topic is such an important piece of information that needs to be talked about. People don’t realize the stress of being a senior, let alone a student athlete. I think the quote about letting themselves have downtime was a short, but a meaningful one.
Fanny Ferrufino • Sep 20, 2022 at 12:26 pm
I like how this article voiced how senior football players deal with school, football, and their free time. It had a lot of quotes which really showed how these student athletes handle it all.