On January 14, 2019, we wanted students to get a better understanding of what it’s like to be a student athlete and have to keep up good grades. At Central Kitsap High School, we interviewed basketball player Ashlynn Cleveland, and bowler Annelisa Ayars, to ask the what their thoughts were on how students athletes keep up their grades.

It can always be complicated trying to keep grades up, for some people. Ashlynn Cleveland says,“I like to do my homework when I’m not playing sports.” It’s always best to put whatever time that is free into homework so being caught up wouldn’t be a problem.

Annelisa Ayars says, “I’m a student before I’m an athlete, I go to math help after school and communicate with my teachers about how I can maintain good grades.” Which is also a good tactic to staying on top of grades or if they’re starting to go down.

Although doing homework and studying might be helpful, sometimes students are still struggling, and those athletes may end up on probation. How do student athlete get back in good standing? Ashlynn claims “ I would never be in that kind of situation, I would’ve quit a long time ago. But if I was in that situation, I would quit basketball.” Annelisa said that she would, “go to practice and I would work on my grades, I would do the extra credit.”

Most of the time, students just need to be encouraged and have a better understanding of why their grades are more important. Ashlynn wants to tell those students that, “In the long run, unless you plan on making a career in sports, you should focus on your grades.”

Annelisa claims, “the system they have in place right now is good because students can’t participate in sports unless they have good grades.” As in, even if you have bad grades, the coach and other staff want to make sure that your grades are your top priority and it would be difficult to get away with bad grades.

There are more struggles to being a student athlete. “Staying awake, and time management.”, Ashlynn says. “I’d say the biggest struggle is finding free time to spend with friends and loved ones.” says Annelisa.

This is a constant struggle for athletes and it will most likely stay the same in the future, so what advice should we give to our future athletes? “School first, then sports.”, says Ashlynn. Considering the fact that the students who are “Student-athletes” the word student should always come first.

When bad grades have affected you in wanting to play sports, it’s best to get help from teachers in the classes that students are struggling with. Considering how some are a “student athlete” and student comes first, grades should be a top priority because grades has an effect in the future. Having a positive attitude towards school work shows a better performance in academics and better grades. Annelisa encourages, “Do your homework on time. Don’t procrastinate.”

From the website “Strong Athletes, Smart Students: The Impact of Teens’ Sports Participation on Academics”, they said, “Sports participation is directly related to higher aspirations for earning a college degree and post-college education specialization.”Along with having good grades, playing sports also gives students advantages to getting into a college. “Higher percentages of athletes studied reported that they aspired to and “definitely will” graduate from a four-year college, and aspired to and “definitely will” attend professional or graduate school after college.” Scouts are always looking for potential players for their college, and many students from CKHS have been accepted at schools to play for them, but they couldn’t have gotten there without having good enough grades to be capable to get there.