As the final bell rings to signal the end of class, senior Hillary Gonzalez gets in the car to begin her 90-minute commute to Pleasanton for weekday soccer practices with her club team. After training for two hours, the senior finally returns home at 9 p.m., leaving her an hour and a half to do homework, just to wake up and do the routine all over again the next day.
This level of commitment isn’t uncommon for elite level athletes, which adds pressure to balance their increasingly demanding commitments.
Of course, these responsibilities also come with many potential rewards. In Gonzalez’s case, she has made a verbal commitment to play for Wellesley’s Division III soccer program next fall.
Gonzalez began playing the sport at age 7 and now competes at the Elite Clubs National League (ECNL) level for the Pleasanton Rage Soccer Club. During the winter, she will also be a captain for the school team.
On top of her demanding sports schedule, Gonzalez is also an accomplished student, plays tuba in the marching band, as well as partaking in various clubs and organizations including the youth commission. With such a busy schedule, it’s no surprise that she and many other student athletes face pressure to get all of their work done, while still maintaining excellence in their sports.
When asked how she balances all of her activities, Gonzalez emphasized how helpful it is to use any free time during the day to get homework and studying done. Although she often drives to practice herself, when her parents or teammates can take her, she uses the time in the car to finish some of her work so that she has less to do when she goes home after practice.
For her other activities, Gonzales said it is important to clearly communicate her priorities to her teachers. As a part of the marching band, she has many conflicts with her sport, but she said that letting her teachers know what is going on allows her to balance all of her commitments.
Schoolwork isn’t the only pressure that athletes like Gonzalez face. At more demanding levels of competition, not only do players have to worry about their own success, but they are also responsible for the success of their teammates during games. Each individual player’s performance impacts the success of whole teams, which can even affect college recruitments for the athletes.
“It’s definitely different from other teams when I was on a lower level,” Gonzalez said. “Everyone’s way more serious because they have a goal in mind, so if I mess up, then I’m messing up for everyone.”
Though being a student athlete comes with its own difficulties, it also allows students to build valuable connections and gives them skills they can use for the rest of their life.
“Sports has opened so many pathways in my life,” Gonzalez said. “It taught me how to work in a team and how to work towards a goal and I apply those lessons to my daily life.”
Sophomore Riona Coghlan, who has been playing competitive water polo for the past four years, has also tried to find balance between her academic commitments and her sport, stressing the importance of communication between her coaches and teachers.
Coghlan plays the role of set for the school team in the fall and her club team, San Jose Express, for the rest of the year. She often averages 2-3 hours of practice a day as well as multiple games over the weekend. With these club commitments, Coghlan is also involved with Boy Scouts, the drama club and the Media Arts Program.
When deciding what activity to prioritize her time, she usually is able to find a compromise, such as attending the first half of a water polo practice and then skipping the latter half for drama rehearsal. With these choices, however, athletes often have to contend with internal and external pressures for their sports.
“Sometimes [the match] makes me really anxious or stressed,” she said. “When I don’t perform my best, I feel awful, like I’ve let my entire team down, so I always feel the need to do my best.”
To counteract this anxiety and perform at her highest, Coghlan — much like other athletes — developed strategies to calm her nerves, such as pre-game rituals and deep breathing techniques.
“Before stressful games, [me and my friends] try to do a lot of stretching to hype each other up so we’re ready to play,” she said, “even if we think the match might not go well, we try to think about positive things or goals that we want to try to reach during the match.”
Though playing a competitive sport comes with a lot of pressure, athletes can also benefit from the valuable life experiences and the break from the academically focused school environment that practices provide.
“Water polo really helps with my mental health,” Coghlan said. “I am able to forget about the rest of the world and just focus on my sport and be with my friends for a while. So, I think it goes both ways. I just have so much love for water polo. Even though it does take a lot of time, it’s another learning opportunity, which is really fun.”
