November 1, 2024

During the football offseason, senior Dontier “Scooby” Stanford doesn’t know what to do with himself. 

In-season, Stanford is a busy man: He is one of Copley’s star football athletes, playing both cornerback and wide receiver. He has been playing football since his freshman year, and he draws strength from the team’s camaraderie and brotherhood. His daily routine is school, practice, work, hanging out with his mom, homework and going to bed. His days fill up.

He’s striving to play football in college, too. 

“That’s the whole point, to do it in college for sure,” Stanford said. 

But during the offseason?

“[I don’t] really know what to do with myself,” Stanford said. 

After school he’ll hang out with his friends or his girlfriend, or go home and watch TV and chill. Spending time with his friends and family is very important to his offseason routine, especially to avoid being bored. 

Though it would be difficult for any student to multitask school, a social life, college visits and two sports, Stanford manages to maintain A’s and B’s. Junior year was the hardest year of high school in terms of balancing academics and sports because he had the greatest number of classes and the workload was heavier than any other year. 

As his senior year progresses, Stanford’s priorities are his family, God and looking at different colleges.

“Trust God and you’ll be okay,” Stanford said. 

Senior soccer player Jake Stitsinger finds it more difficult to be a student athlete in-season. 

“You have a lot less time to do homework and study for grades,” Stitsinger said. 

Stitsinger has been enjoying soccer since the first grade, and currently plays defense. Like Stanford, he feels the pressure of time management during the in-season. 

“[In-season] after school I go home, because I have early dismissal, and I chill out for maybe twenty minutes,” Stitsinger said. “[Then] I go back for practice or a game, and I come home and try to finish as much homework as I can at night. Out of season I go home, do homework, usually work after school, get my bread up.” 

Stitsinger is currently prioritizing his grades, hanging out with his friends, and his performance in soccer. While he has a strong passion for the sport, he doesn’t find it intriguing enough to continue playing after high school. He wants to focus more strictly on his schoolwork in college, and he wouldn’t be playing with his friends anymore. 

Senior lacrosse player Ally Reho prefers the in-season because she gets to spend time with her friends every day. She does find it more difficult than the offseason, however. 

“You have to multitask with practices and your schoolwork,” Reho said. 

Out of season, her usual routine is going home, doing homework, going to work, a night time routine and then going to sleep. But in-season, it’s coming home from school, quickly doing some homework, going to a two hour practice, a night time routine and then heading to bed. 

Reho has been playing lacrosse for four years. She started playing her freshman year of high school, and joined varsity as one of the team’s key defenders. Without lacrosse, she believes she would be a completely different person. Her top priorities as a student athlete are school, her family and her friends, though during lacrosse season the sport rises to the top of her priority list. 

Despite Reho’s love for lacrosse, she is not planning to play in college. Like Stitsinger, she is choosing to step away from the pressures of the student-athlete schedule. 

“I want to be able to focus on my grades and [my] major,” Reho said. “And [just] be able to have fun.”