Many students love doing sports, but when does it become too much? For students like Gabriel Short (10), Jace Graddy (9), and Piper Wietbrock (10), sports is what they do 24/7. 

Short plays football, basketball, and track. He believes that he is the best at football and he practices that the most during the summer, playing 7 v.7 flag football. Short gets a lot of pressure from his parents to be the best he can. 

“They always want me to do everything when I just want free time for myself,” Short said. With doing all these sports he says his grades definitely get affected with the lack of free time.

Mental health is a big factor when doing so many extracurriculars. Sports can cause anxiety from all the stress and hardships put on you by parents, coaches, etc. For Graddy, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

“My parents don’t really put any pressure on me,” Graddy said. The only thing Graddy struggles with is that he doesn’t have much free time. He plays soccer, basketball, and baseball. With being a freshman he might change his answers a few months from now. 

Wietbrock does cross country and track and she did basketball last year. She said she quit basketball because she doesn’t like basketball that much, also it affected her mental health a ton and it’s too much for her to do. 

“Having so much to do is hard, sometimes I wake up then I have morning practice then school then practice and also homework at night and I never have time to do anything. It’s just not fun,” Wietbrock said. 

Participating in so many sports can affect your mental health, ability to have free time, and pressure from the people around you.