Students at South are very active when it comes to sports and extracurriculars. Many students play sports all year long, but many play a winter and take the spring off to do other things.

According to juniors Keely Conlan and Alexa Downey, they play basketball in the winter. In the spring, however, Conlan takes it off and Downey plays Amateur Athletic Union, or AAU, Basketball.

“Not playing a school sport in the spring allows for more time to do other things. I have more time for homework and my other out of school activities, which has its benefits,” Downey said. “But I still miss the atmosphere of basketball at South.”

According to Conlan, she starts to swim on her own, which she does full time in the summer for her local park. Additionally, Conlan will workout regularly and eat healthy daily in order to stay fit.

“I try to make not playing a sport in the spring affect me by keeping up my workouts and staying in shape on my own,” Conlan said. “It can be hard at times because I don’t feel as motivated, but I really am on myself about keeping up with it.”

According to Conlan, she feels lazy and worse at time management while not playing a sport, but school work and participating in physical activity helps balance that out.

“Because I have more time when I don’t play a sport, I sometimes find myself wasting too much time when I should be doing my homework or something else productive, but I try to work past that as best I can,” Downey said.

According to Downey, she thinks a break from a sport is very important. She finds that eventually, after a long period of time of hard practices and constant games, a break is needed to remain motivated and functioning at one’s highest potential.

“It is very important to take breaks from sports because you don’t want to over work yourself, especially with basketball, because it’s constantly non stop practices and games,” Conlan said. “Also, it’s just nice to finally have time back to relax and take some time to yourself.”