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In doing this project me and my partner wanted to help incoming freshman athletes better understand how to deal with their stress and how they manage their time.  Me and my partner both play football here at UPIKE so we understand it can be hard to deal with classes and a sport at the same time.  We have both had to find our own way to make it work for us and we believe our personal experiences could help aid students In how to better themselves as an officiant student athlete.

Being a student athlete can be a hard thing to do.  With being a student athlete you have to make sure you are constantly on top of your grades, getting behind on grades can cause a lot of stress and get you far behind on your work.  Then once you find yourself behind on work you have to find time in your schedule with your sport to try and catch up.

Behind or not if you feel like what you’re doing is stressing you out there are plenty of ways to relieve that stress. One of the best ways I liked to relieve my stress was stepping away from the situation and finding something that was calming or relaxing to me in a way that my nerves weren’t so busted and I could actually focus on the task at hand rather than ignoring it and not getting to work turned in.  Another good way to deal with your stress is by finding a different approach to the work you are trying to complete.  Step back and evaluate the situation and find a new tactic and once you find something that works for you then roll with it.  Overall stress is not good for your body and all you are doing by stressing out is making it worse on yourself or the situation.  So like I said before find new ways and new tactics or just give yourself a break so you can actually think.

Student athletes also struggle with how they manage their time because all of this is new to them.  It’s a student’s first time away from home and their first time actually being on their own so they are just trying to figure everything out. Even though I thought I’d never use one I found it was very useful to keep a planner.  Keeping a planner for me reduced stress because it was a physical way for me to see when and what time practices were or when an assignment was due.  If you write something down you’re more than likely to remember it and then even if you don’t you have it written down to look at.  Plus when you are more efficient it opens up more time for yourself to do what you want to do rather than go to practice or sit in your room and do work, and it’s good to get away for a while rather than keep yourself at school 24/7.  In conclusion It can be really hard being a student athlete but you gotta have a plan on how you will get over that hump and make it easy for yourself.  So remember to stay on task, stay focused and get the job done.