RING! The end-of-the-day bell rings at 2:30, and students pour out into the hallways to go home. However, many of Edison High’s current winter sports athletes have to gather their equipment and wait for their buses to arrive to take them to practice. Edison High does not currently have appropriate practice areas for ice hockey, swimming, and bowling athletes.
While Edison High has many fields for different sports, certain winter sports teams have to travel elsewhere for practice. The bowling team has to travel to Bowlero or Majestic Lanes, the swimming team to Raritan Bay YMCA, and the ice hockey team to the Woodbridge Community Center; it takes the athletes about 15-25 minutes to reach their destination. Their practice does not start right away, though. For example, the swimming team’s practice starts at 5:00, but their bus picks them up at 3:30.
“Our practice lasts from 5 pm to 6 pm, but we’re supposed to meet at 3:30 pm to get on the bus. This means we get to the pool at 4 pm but are forced to wait an hour to start practice…In the past, we would leave at 4:15 (get there at 4:45 and have 15 minutes to change), but buses would be late, leading us to miss a few minutes of practice,” said Nirmit Bhoyar ‘25, captain of the boy’s swimming team.
Among the athletes, some of the challenges that come up the most are the hassle and wasted time of getting from school to practice.
“The bus comes late since it has to pick up 3 schools together and we lose some time for our practice,” said Kashvi Shrivastava ‘27, an ice hockey athlete.
The bus arriving late to pick up the athletes can cause a series of scheduling problems—one of them being wasted time.
“The challenge that you could face is wasting time. The trip from the YMCA to the school could take a lot of time,” said swimming athlete, Karthikeyan Saravanamoorthy ‘27.
One of the biggest challenges with being a student-athlete is balancing homework with a sport, especially since practice tends to end late. Utilizing the time they have before the bus picks them up, some student-athletes take that time to finish their homework.
“Challenges would be getting home really late and having to stay at school for extra time,” said Riti Thakare ‘28, swimming athlete. “But in that extra time, I get so much of my work done, primarily because there is nothing else to do.”
Others utilize their study hall and lunch periods to get their work done, knowing the challenges with after-school practice.
“I always get my work done, including homework beforehand in study hall or free time during class each day, which makes me able to look forward to not having to look forward to any schoolwork after bowling, and when I get home, so I’ll get to fully relax,” said Rene Morales ‘25, a varsity bowler on the girls team.
Extra time during classes after the teacher finishes the lesson a few minutes early, and even on the weekend, is also helpful for the athletes to complete any work they might have.
“You have to use every part of your day productively. If a teacher finishes a lesson early, you have to get started on any homework assignment you have. The goal is to complete assignments as soon as possible and finish any leftover work over the weekend,” said Bhoyar. “If you don’t use your time productively, you’ll end up falling behind and never catching up unless you take a day off (which in itself might create more work), the season ends, or you have a very productive weekend.”
Despite the challenges, there are still benefits of being a student-athlete who has to leave school for practice. One, for example, is being in a new environment that isn’t just school all day.
“I’m alright with going somewhere else for practice,” said Dennis Yusupov ‘27, left wing on the ice hockey team. “If anything, it’s rather refreshing seeing something else besides the school.”
Ultimately, time management seems to be the key to balancing a sport and school.
“It is challenging but being productive in class, managing your time and energy, and staying focused and present throughout the day are the main keys that I find work the best,” said John Re ‘25, bowling athlete.
“You should definitely put your work above your sport but otherwise balance them both out equally,” said Zara Hafeez ‘28, bowler for the Junior Varsity team.
As a solution, some athletes suggest that either making practice earlier or having their own lanes, pools, or ice rink would make the circumstances better for them; some say that having our own swimming pool would benefit more than just the EHS students.
“I would rather have our swimming pool so that not only we can practice freely, but we can also use it with younger kids so we can train them for high school swimming,” said Victor Costa ‘25.
Even though there are ups and downs, benefits and challenges of leaving EHS for practice, time management seems to be an important way that athletes balance their schoolwork and their sports.
“As a first year, I learned that if you don’t have good time management skills you can’t be a part of a sport and still keep up with the work. If necessary you should definitely put your work above your sport but otherwise balance them both out equally. As Coach Smith herself once said, put school on top of anything, and then bowling should come next,” said Hafeez.
