Opinion by Luke Maddock

Most student-athletes from Mount Vernon know the feeling of getting back to the school at some absurd time of night after a long away game to Davenport, Manchester, Western Dubuque, or any of the other trips that take longer than an hour to complete. Depending on the outcome of the night, a cocktail mixture of happy, sleepy, upset, relieved, or just flat out tired runs up and down your body. The real thorn in your side is that you have to be back in the hallways for class in just a few short hours. Next morning, you return to the building in a state of half-consciousness, most likely dressed in sweatpants and a sweatshirt. All of this exhaustion and being extremely irritable, tired, and in no way paying attention in class leads to less studying, dropping grades, and trouble with some teachers.

Obviously, as student-athletes, we understand that we have made a commitment to something and that it is going to take away time of our lives, force us to make sacrifices, and make things a little more challenging, but there are some tasks that are just unreasonable.

This is why it would be beneficial to let those student-athletes just a few more hours to collect and prepare themselves to normally function in school again. All it would mean is giving athletes that return to the school from a game or meet at 11:00 p.m. or later the option of starting their next school day at the end of first hour. This means that the athlete must be in the building by 9:20 and must attend their second hour class, unless they have a free period.

The class work that the athlete would miss would be the responsibility of the athlete to manage, whether it means settling it with the teacher or coming in before practice that day to make it up. If the athlete cannot make something up that afternoon, then it would be their responsibility to figure out a reasonable time to do so, most likely before school the next morning.

If it becomes a problem where the athlete never does their make-up work, then that privilege will be stripped from them. Responsibility is something athletes are supposed to learn through their sport, and if they cannot translate it to the classroom, then they will not be given those those benefits.

This extra hour can be extremely helpful to all athletes. More time leads to more sleep and better cognitive abilities in class. The more responsive and active a student is in class, the more likely they are to succeed, which is ultimately the end goal in school.

Studies done by researchers suggest that a lack of sleep legitimately limits a student’s ability to pay attention in class, remember certain areas of study, and can cause serious amounts of stress. All of these can be improved easily by letting athletes who come home late at night from competitions sleep in just a little bit.

I’m not asking for much, just a reasonable amount of time that could help athletes function at their best. It helps them, their teachers, their grades, their coaches, and everyone else around them. The benefits are obvious and I believe this would work well at Mount Vernon.