Junior Manish Raghavan is an example of why the administration made a big scheduling change this year. He loves soccer and plays it as his winter sport. But he knows that in December and January he is going to be missing his sixth-period class, Calculus BC with Ms. Warmuth, on many Wednesdays and Fridays when games are scheduled to be played.

This year the school has tried to combat the problem of frequently missed sixth periods by giving athletes who played certain sports a seventh period and an unscheduled sixth. The problem is, this new system seems to work little better than the original one that usually gave athletes an unscheduled seventh period.

This new scheduling policy attempts to help all the athletes; however, it has ended up creating more conflicts for those playing multiple sports.

For a student participating in cross country, having no seventh is better than having no sixth because practices often begin during seventh period. For a student playing soccer, however, an unscheduled sixth would be beneficial, since most games are on Wednesdays or Fridays.

The problems happen when an athlete participates in multiple sports whose ideal schedules are different, as is the case with cross country and soccer. Some athletes contemplate changing their schedules at the end of their seasons, yet this would create unnecessary complications for teachers and the administration.

In addition, having a seventh period instead of a sixth creates an unbalanced schedule—and athletes find themselves overwhelmed by having four classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays and only two on Wednesdays and Fridays. To add insult to injury, games are often scheduled to take place on Wednesdays and Fridays, resulting in homework-logged athletes.

In the old schedule, there was less of a hassle for athletes playing multiple sports. Plus, it is less complicated for the administration.

No matter how hard one tries to make both sides happy, good compromises leave everyone unhappy. Athletes who play multiple sports are dedicated to their activities and understand that it is their responsibility to maintain their grades and their participation in sports. No matter what the administration does, scheduling conflicts will always occur due to sports.

Considering all the complications, the old system is probably better than the new one.