additional reporting by Olivia Goudy and Hayley Mendola
With eight sports teams for men and 11 for women, Seton Hill University (SHU) has a number of student athletes on campus.
Free time becomes very limited for student athletes, who need to make time for classes, workouts, games and studying.
“The most challenging part of managing a cross country and class schedule is definitely when we have to go away on trips to competitions. For example, the cross country team goes to Notre Dame this week and I will miss two full days of class, which is very difficult for me to make up all the work,” said Riley Giaquinto, a junior cross country runner.
Depending on the time of the year, student athletes have dramatically changing daily expectations.
“During preseason, we usually have two workouts a day while balancing classes. During season, we have one practice a day or a game during the week with usually only one day off per week. On game days, we travel all morning, get ready and warmed up, play our game, and then travel back to school, sometimes missing a whole day’s worth of classes,” said Tiara Stossel, a senior women’s basketball player.
Student athletes become masters of scheduling, according to Mallory Sanner, a senior on the women’s basketball team.
Sanner noted that knowing her schedule before the day starts is important. “Being a student athlete is very busy and there is not much time throughout the day to relax. Between going to classes, having two workouts daily, and maybe a night class could be tough. Time management is the only way I can say that I have been able to keep up on all my responsibilities in a day,” said Sanner.
One thing that most of the athletes agree on is the invaluable bond they share with their teammates.
“The best part of being a student athlete is forming lasting friendships with our teammates, coaches, and fans and competing against many other talented basketball players,” said Stossel.
While keeping up with all of the responsibilities of being a student athlete can be stressful, “Mostly it is a healthy stress, one that pushes me to do better in class and motivates me to work harder at practice, but sometimes it gets overwhelming,” said Kayla Percic, a sophomore on the track and field team.
Percic also offered advice for those feeling the pressure of a busy schedule. “When it does get too stressful, I do something completely unrelated to school or track. Watch a movie with my suite mates, take a walk around charitas Christie’s, or most often I color. My best advice for any stressed out college student (everyone) is to enjoy the simple things, chances are things that made you happy when you were younger (like coloring) still make you happy and can take your mind off of the stress of life.”
“We spend about 7 to 8 hours a week in practice and hours per week in meets depends on how far we have to travel. A meet could be anywhere from 1 hour away to 6 hours away. We have one meet per week and the meet itself will last about 3 hours each time, distance traveled varies,” Giaquinto said.