At the peak of her season with multiple events ahead, Lya Brenner — a junior on the dance team — says, “Dance is a year round sport, but it gets especially crazy during homecoming season when we’re getting ready for pep rally, and during competition season. So it definitely becomes hard to give a lot of my time to homework after school.”
Lane Tech’s offers a large athletic department of 37 sports consists of countless student-athletes who constantly work to manage their time and responsibilities. The life of a Lane athlete is a busy one, between the workload of a selective enrollment school and the expectations of being a high performing athlete. The average schedule of these athletes consists of an early morning, full day of school, then following with 2-3 hours of practice.
“I have a little time when I go home,” said Tucker Atwood, a junior on the Lane Tech Boys Basketball Team. “I have to have dinner, have time with my family, and I have to mix in schoolwork, which is a struggle most times.”
Despite the long and hard schedule, these athletes have to find a balance between school, their social lives, and sometimes work, with support from their sports community, and the Lane Tech staff. For Brenner, school takes priority, and dance comes second.
“Coaches are really understanding that school sometimes has to take priority, and I think my teachers understand that if I have a lot of practices, maybe I’ll turn in an assignment late,” Brenner said.
Ethan Data, a junior on the Boys Baseball Team said, “I do genuinely feel really supported, especially by my coaches, but a lot of my teachers also accommodate for what my day entails and like what works that I actually do.”
Even with the support of the Lane Tech community, there are notable sacrifices these athletes have to make in order to succeed.
“It’s also really important to note that you have sacrifices you have to make, with your parents and socially as well, it comes with a big responsibility,” Data said. “So I would say I have to make a lot of sacrifices day in and day out.”
With the balance of sports and school being so time consuming, Atwood explains “I’ve sacrificed time, time with family, friends, sometimes grades.”
To avoid becoming overwhelmed by the demands of school and athletics, Data explains he tries to stay focused on his personal path.
“For me personally, I know that there’s one path that fits me the best, so I try to remember that I have to stick on that path,” Data said. “Anything that comes in my way is either a distraction or will push me further to what I want to do.”
These athletes’ words reflect the commitment it takes to succeed in such a competitive environment. As Atwood says, high school sports are a “great opportunity for growth.”
