Fall, winter and spring break are usually times for family vacations, relaxation and time away from school. This isn’t the case for student-athletes.

Over breaks, athletes are expected to stay at home and go to practice or games over break.

“It teaches you work ethic,” sophomore Lamarco Yates said. “It gives you the mentality that you have no days off so it makes you a better athlete.”

Yates is currently an all-year around athlete, playing football, basketball and he runs track and field. He is not able to really ever go on vacation anywhere due to all of his breaks being taken over by athletics. Over the summer, football is starting up. Over fall break, the SHS football team is still in season and usually have a game the week of break. During the winter, the SHS basketball team is in the middle of their season. The basketball team even played two games over winter break and practiced from two to three hours every weekday.

“Practice makes perfect,” is a quote that applies to high school athletics well. Simply taking two weeks off of practice can have negative effects on a high school team

“At the high school level it’s hard to start and then stop… for two weeks,” assistant baseball coach Brent Bockelman said. 

According to IHSAA, 10 separate days of practice are required before an athlete can participate in a game. For SHS, the baseball program has a game on March 27. This means the only way for the players to be able to play is to practice over spring break.

Even with practices and games, some athletes still look at it as a break. At least from school.

“I think it’s still a break because I don’t have to come to school and do schoolwork,” senior and multi-sport athlete, Sam Rust said. “I enjoy practice and it gives me something to do.”