When I was preparing to leave eighth grade, I told myself that I was going to try to make the most out of my experience in high school. This meant getting involved in sports and clubs to try and involve myself in the school as much as I could.

Now, as a junior, I find myself only involved in two extracurriculars outside of the three sports I play.

As a school on the smaller side, we do have a large plethora of clubs to choose from. However, for athletes who play sports after school, the options for clubs to join are very limited. 

It has turned into a full-time commitment to be a part of a club and a sports team at the same time. Having to choose between joining clubs and being a member of a sports team has become an issue for students, especially during a time when college applications care a lot about students’ involvement in the school in both sports and clubs. 

The cause of this issue is likely that it is more convenient for students who aren’t members of sports teams and faculty supervisors to meet after school instead of waking up earlier.

This is a fair reason to hold club meetings after school, as I too would find myself in the category of students and faculty who don’t want to wake up earlier.

On the other hand, according to a story done by Education Week, 57.4% of all high school students play sports. This means that there is a possibility that over half the students at the school are not in clubs due to their involvement in sports, which could be solved if clubs met before school started. 

Two examples of clubs/organizations that meet before school are the  FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) and the Student Council, both of which have regular meetings that are overfilled with students to the point that sometimes there aren’t even enough seats in the room for all the members to sit. 

My hope is, that although it is unlikely that clubs that currently meet after school will start meeting in the mornings, more students will eventually organize new clubs, and those clubs will be hosted before school starts.