Have you ever thought about the kind of stress students go through when they have sports games or meets throughout the week? Well I have, and I decided to write about the kind of stress these students go through. Students have hours of practice every day after school and then have to go home and do homework and chores. When you add games and meets to the mix, it adds stress to the student. When you have games on weekdays, you add travel time for away games, and then you have to do warm-ups at least an hour before every game, so you are at games even longer. 

Cons of having games or meets throughout the week:

• Homework load and still being a student in high school: High school students still have to do homework which can lead to physical and mental exhaustion. If there is a test, then the students might have to bump back studying to the next night because they have to get the work that is due the next day done first. On top of late nights with games and homework, you might have to do double the work the next night.  
• Performance Anxiety: Performance anxiety is when students tend to put too much pressure on themselves. One of the biggest ways students put performance anxiety on themselves is the intense pressure to win and the public evaluation. This can then add anxiety and self-esteem issues. 
• Physical Exhaustion:  When students have games and get home late, it typically means insufficient sleep patterns, which could mean students are not focusing as hard on their studies the next day. 
• Difficulty in keeping up on Work: With the games being throughout the week, students might often feel like they are falling behind their peers because of the busy schedule of that particular sport season. 

Pros of having games or meets throughout the week:

• Mostly Free weekends: When students have games throughout the week, their weekends are mainly free because they don’t have a ton of games The only exception to the free weekends is that they might have one game Saturday morning, but that still leaves most of the weekend to hang out with friends. 
• Consistent physical activity: With games throughout the week, it then requires athletes to keep pushing themselves every day to keep getting better because they want to be in the starting lineup or get PRs, then they have to keep improving and pushing themselves to get the best they can be to meet their goals. This can also improve their health. 
• Improve Stress Management: When there are games during the week, it teaches students good time management skills, how to prioritize, and how they can manage some of their stress during the season.
• Better Routine Strategies: When there are games throughout the week, then students can create routines and know what it is like to have to multitask. 

     I asked a student athlete who is in soccer, basketball, and track what she thought of having games on weeknights and she said “Having games on school nights can be fun while you are playing but as soon as you get home you are stressed about getting your homework done and getting to bed on time. It can often leave you super drained the next day.”

     There are obviously several pros and cons of having games or meets throughout the week, but in my opinion, the cons severely outweigh the pros, with students’ mental and physical health being put to the test during seasons.