By Staff Writer John Conway

School athletics are a time-consuming endeavor, often leaving schedules completely booked. In order to successfully manage their time, many students need to master a juggling act between school, a social life, and athletics.

For most of these athletes, this condition is only temporary, ending once their respective season is over. But for some, this crazed schedule has become their norm. Such is the case for multi-sport athletes.

Senior DeSean Brown, varsity captain for the football and boys track teams, found that managing time became a challenge once he earned the freedom to drive.

“I think that [time management] becomes a problem when you become a driver,” Brown said. “In junior and senior year, it becomes a problem because you can drive around and do stuff. When you’re younger, it’s easier to stay focused because you’re tied down between school life and athletics.”

But for those who can balance athletics and academics, their find their high school experience invaluable. Senior Kyra Hartley, a varsity athlete on both the girls swim and water polo teams, has found that her sports have helped her make lasting friendships and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

“I have a really great group of friends because of sports,” Hartley said. “I got to meet a lot of people I wouldn’t have met, like underclassmen and people older than me too. And it’s just important to stay in shape; it helps you focus better in school, and feel better about yourself.”

Brown played on the basketball team in both freshman and sophomore years, but the erratic schedule of the sport made it harder to continue competing. Eventually, he gave up the sport and refocused his energy.

“There [wasn’t] really a scheduled practice,” Brown said. “Some days we had morning practice, some days we had afternoon, maybe three or four games a week and sometimes a tournament. It was hard with so much to juggle around, hard to schedule.”

But for Brown, “in-shape” meant two entirely different things for each sport. Certain strengths emphasized in one sport may be less relevant with regards to another.

“The hardest thing is just staying in-shape in between seasons,” Brown said. “Being in shape is different for every sport you play. [You] just make sure you’re still strong enough to transition [from] football, to basketball, then track, without getting injured or having problems in different areas.”

Once he leaves Naperville North, Brown hopes that he will adapt to the collegiate workload as he focuses only on football at Lafayette College.

“I’m hoping it will be similar to what happened here,” Brown said. “I’m not sure how it’s going to turn out yet, [but] I think it should be a pretty easy transition. Now I’m only going to be playing one sport, being able to focus one thing. It’ll be easier for me to focus on academics as well, after this.”