A student athlete’s daily routine has been found to be highly essential to overall successes in practices and games. With the goal of excelling in their respective sports, student athletes must sufficiently balance the amount of sleep, academic efficiency, and practice remedies that can help one achieve this goal.

As academic, family, social, religious, and athletic commitments become more demanding for a wide variety of kids, Hackley students continue to rise above these challenges and try their best to excel in each sport. However, for a normal Hackley student, balancing all of these at once can cause prolonged stress and aggravation. A clear example of this type of athlete is junior Liam Bogart, a competitive swimmer for Empire Swim Club and a diligent student at Hackley. On average, he swims for about 2.5 hours each day, consisting of 10,000 yards, the equivalent of about 5.7 miles. Liam stated, “As we get closer to bigger meets, however, the yardage will decrease in order to keep us rested and in shape. Practice times will also decrease and go from the regular 2.5 hours to 1.5-2 hours.” Liam practices this taxing sport six times a week along with team junior members Ryan Schaum, Bryce Chu, Garrett Towne, and Georgia Panitz.

Chris O’Sullivan, also a talented athlete, practices on a year-round travel baseball team for approximately two hours each day. “Practices for my travel baseball team consist of agility, throwing, hitting, fielding, and base running. These are all aimed to prepare us for year-round competition and help keep us mentally and physically prepared for high school and collegiate play.” Athletes like Liam and Chris must make social sacrifices leach and every day to excel at this sport, ultimately ensuring dominance in athletics and ideally a spot at the collegiate level.

Liam and Chris are among many Hackley athletes completely devoted to their sport and zoned in on their individual and team success. Adjustments to academic efficiency and sleep are vital to swim at his highest level at meets. “The day of the big meet, I won’t do a single thing in order to keep my body rested and my mind mentally prepared. I will just eat and sleep in order to ready myself for the meet.” Similarly, Chris said, “Before every game I try to take a nap to mentally refresh myself for opportunities to pitch and field the ball.” These students’ athletic focus for the future should be a testament to other student athletes trying to excel.