How is it that student athletes manage their lives at Carleton? With the amount of schoolwork a Carleton student already has, and the clubs and activities they are a part of, let’s not forget about work study some students have, and on top of that long practices, how is it that they find the time to have a social life or destress from all their activities?
This stress may vary depending on the sport a Carl plays. Some sports like track, cross country, and football require many hours and commitment. Despite Carleton being a D3 school, students find themselves dedicating a great amount of time to their sport.
“Practice wise, if you count lifting, it’s at least four and a half hours per week and if you count meetings with practice it’s about nine hours per week,” said Josh Angevine ’21, football player. “I have to do stuff like study film or study the playbook. That’s like an hour of my own time right there.” Angevine spends almost the same amount of time that is required of a job at Carleton, which says a lot about the commitment of varsity sports at Carleton.
Despite long hours of practice or tournament and game days, Carls have different ways of managing their stress. “A lot of managing stress for me is exercising and playing the sport is a great way to deal with my stress and even in the off season I like to go out and play soccer,” said Marco da Cunha ’22, soccer player.
“Feeling organized helps me feel less stressed so I plan out my weeks with my competitions and games so I know when I’ll get bigger chunks to study,” said Asha Bozicevich ’21, basketball player and track runner. “Also what helps me is when I’m at practice I’m just at practice, I’m not trying to think about problem sets or other things.”
Although it can be overwhelming balancing social life, clubs, work load, and sports, many student athletes enjoy their sport and feel like it’s all worth it. At times student athletes may consider quitting, but remember that they love their sport and the community they are a part of.
“I just really love running, I just love my sport and I really love the people on my team. I love competing, I mean you can run by yourself but I love racing,” said Sam Schnirring ’19, track and cross country runner.
“It’s really great to be a part of a community that understands what you are going through at the same time and also working towards a common goal,” said Bozicevich.
Student athletes at Carleton are not much different from other Carls. They must make sacrifices just like others, who are deeply involved with their activities and clubs. Student athletes automatically have a chunk of their time cut out from their daily schedule and may value sleep more than others just because they have to use their physical body for their sport.
Sonya Romanenko ’22, tennis player, said, “It is quite a bit of commitment but since I enjoy it I don’t really find that it hinders and other aspects of my Carleton experience.”
