Senior Kylie Sloan has spent each of her four years at SHS on the softball team. But, in her eyes, it seems like there are too many games with not enough time in between them this season.

“It’s very hard at the end of my senior year but it isn’t impossible,” Sloan said. “We can get through it.”

Spring athletes like Sloan feel overwhelmed with the overload of games and meets in the first weeks of the 2021 season. After coming back to school four days a week for the first time this year and jumping into the season right after spring break, this has proven to be a lot for SHS athletes to handle.  

Sloan has a job and says it’s very difficult for her to work a lot. She often has to call off from work to make it to practices and games. She says there was even a time when she had to call off two consecutive weeks because of too many games. 

“It’s very tiring,” Sloan said. “I feel like it should be spread out in a better way instead of so many games back to back.” 

In just the third week of the season, the softball team had a span of six games in six days. This year the team was scheduled to play 28 regular season games, while two years ago they only played 28 all together including sectionals and the marion county tournament. 

For some athletes, competing multiple times a week isn’t a problem. The track team had five meets in two weeks, but their season will come to a slow down after their conference meet. Junior Van Lian enjoys the many track meets because it quickly shows how he improves. 

“If I do bad in a meet one day, in two days I can improve my time,” Lian said. 

Despite this, Lian still sees the downsides to having so many meets in a short time span. The meets help the team, but they also deprive some athletes of the chance to improve during practices since they are competing so often.

Lian also understands the importance of staying healthy throughout the season. He believes the biggest aspect of competing often is to recover well and make sure that one doesn’t suffer an injury. 

“Having a lot of meets together, it gets tiring but it was part of joining track,” Lian said. “You have to work hard and push through it.”

The first couple weeks of the spring seasons have been the biggest stressors for the athletes. According to boys track head coach Andrew Geller, at the beginning of the season there are many meets in a short span of time. Geller and other coaches have been there for their athletes by helping them prepare for weeks full of track meets. 

“Our coaches and athletes have done a wonderful job balancing training, competing and injury prevention so far this year,” Geller said.