Balancing School and Soccer: Time Management Tips for High School Athletes

As a dedicated athlete in high school, your sport is on your mind all the time. It’s your passion, it’s what gets you out of bed in the morning, but the fact is, it’s not your only priority.  

For example: if you want to play college soccer, you have to perform in the classroom as well. The demands of your training regimen cannot stop you from paying attention in school and devoting plenty of time to studying.

Balancing school and soccer isn’t easy. But time management is an extremely valuable skill that virtually every successful athlete utilizes on a daily basis. The sooner you learn this skill, the more prepared you’ll be for a long and fulfilling athletic career.

On that note, here are a few time management tips for high school athletes:

Be Present and Pay Attention in School

It’s not uncommon for high school athletes to feel mentally “checked out” at school, mostly because they’d rather be somewhere else. This makes it difficult to focus in class, preventing you from taking good notes and internalizing information.

When the day of the test is approaching, you feel unprepared. Now, you have to find time to learn all this information you were supposed to have learned over the past few weeks, on top of your rigorous training schedule.

You can avoid this situation by understanding that the more you actually learn at school, the less studying you’ll have to do. Every time you daydream in class, you give yourself more material to study at home, taking time away from other things like improving your game or hanging out with your friends. So, just accept that for a good chunk of the day, school is where you have to be, both physically and mentally. You aren’t just an athlete, you’re a student, too.

Take Advantage of Opportunities to Get Ahead 

Another way to give yourself more time at home is taking advantage of study hall, and other opportunities to get ahead on work during school. As parents ourselves, we’re well-aware that most kids view these periods as time off, when they can joke around with their friends and dive into TikTok.

A cornerstone of time management is being more strategic about these open parts of the day. These are your opportunities to make your life less stressful and more conducive to having more flexible time after school.  

So, if you want to spend less time doing homework when you could be playing soccer, get as much work done at school as you can. Trust us, there are a lot more opportunities to do this than you think.

Know What’s Important to You

School isn’t just an academic activity. It’s where kids go to see their friends, and maintaining a social life is very important.

Managing your time at school doesn’t mean “having no social life.” You just have to be more strategic about when you see your friends. Most athletes have 5 main things that take up their time: soccer, school, sleep, family, friends. Learning to focus on whichever you are doing at the moment gives you more freedom. 

At Beyond Goals Mentoring, we know teenagers need help to master time management, a skill most people don’t have to master until adulthood.

Fortunately, this just happens to be one of our specialties. Having played professionally, we harness our own experience to teach young athletes how to prioritize schoolwork, friendships, and mental health amid the demands of high-level competition. So, if your athlete could use a hand balancing school and soccer, let’s set up a mentoring session today.