Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Sports and School

UCLA Quarterback Josh Rosen said in an interview recently that going to college and playing football are not compatible:
Look, football and school don't go together. They just don't. Trying to do both is like trying to do two full-time jobs... No one in their right mind should have a football player's schedule and go to school.

Rosen is an Economics major, and he's right. Here's the kicker, though: in high school, it's even worse.

Eli 16.1 goes to school from 7:40-3:00, five days a week. Taking out the hour for lunch, that's about 36 hours a week for school. Nearly a full-time job, by itself.


Wait, add 2 hours a night for homework (four AP classes out of six). That makes it 46 hours a week.


Now, the hockey schedule:

Monday: Practice 6:20-7:20 + 1 hour driving time
Tuesday: 1 hour off-ice workout at rink + 1 hour driving time

Wednesday: Film 5:40, Practice 6:30-7:50, Off-ice workout 8-8:40 + 1 hour driving time
Thursday: Practice 8:30-9:50 + 1 hour driving time

The rink is 30 minutes away, and Eli has to be at the rink 30 minutes before practice, plus it takes him 15 minutes to get out of his gear after practice. Add all of that time together, and it's roughly 12 hours a week. 


We're just getting started, though. 


This weekend (and it's not atypical), we're going to a showcase in Detroit, and his team will play four games in three days.


It's 5 hours round trip to/from Detroit. For each game, here's the time involved:

--roughly 15 minute drive to rink (30 minutes total)
--arrive at rink 90 minutes before game
--game lasts roughly 2 hours 
--in locker room for 30 minutes after game

So for a single game, that's 4.5 hours. Add all that together for 4 games plus to/from, and it's 23 hours total. 


That's 35 hours a week on hockey. 


Combined, it's 81 hours. 80+ hours a week, and that doesn't include vision training or stretching. Like Rosen said, it's two full-time jobs.


That's what elite high school athletes have to do. 


Incredible, isn't it? And for college, I'm sure it's worse. 


Eli is very, very disciplined about all this, and I know he can handle it, but man, it's tough. 

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