Holidays a tough time for athletes

By Mark Siefert

There wasn’t very much going on last week in the SXU world of sports, I mean Women’s Basketball won and moved up to #2 in the NAIA National Rankings, and the Men upset #11 Olivet, but honestly that’s about it. So, this week I’m going back to talking about the lives of student athletes, like I did last semester.

Many people around campus think athletes live the gravy train and have the easiest life on campus. I wish not everyone thought like that. We have many hours of practice each week, plus homework, studying and class. I’m not complaining; I just want people to understand what we do.

What I want to talk about this week is missing things while away or at school. Many people probably didn’t know the amount of holidays and other family events that either have to be rescheduled or canceled because an athlete is up at school or on the road. Here are a few examples:

• Thanksgiving: The football team is usually practicing for a huge game they have on Saturday, so many times families are either forced to have Thanksgiving on Thursday morning before practice or move it altogether. But what about those families who live further away? Its unfortunate but those students do not get to spend Thanksgiving at home.
• Christmas: Men’s and Women’s basketball are usually at school over break and, unlike the rest of the school, the teams usually get one or two days to go home and celebrate with their families. But they usually have to play the day after Christmas.
• Easter: Baseball and Softball are usually at school over break and then they play on Saturday, so we get Sunday off to spend Easter at home and then we are back up to have a game on Monday.
• Family Holidays: Personally, I cannot count how many family birthdays I have missed during the season because it is just too hard to plan it around my crazy schedule. All athletes have this same problem because they have changing schedule by the minute.

Let me reiterate, I am not complaining, I just want people on campus to appreciate all the hard work athletes put into a season and off season. I understand being an athlete has some perks and I would not trade it for anything, but people need to realize we are working hard and making sacrifices to do something we love.

Stay Classy, Cougars.
Mark

Mark Siefert is a senior social science major from Crest Hill. He is a member of the baseball team. Consideration for the student bloggers is provided by Saint Xavier University.