Given the difficult decision between registering for a certain required class and attending daily sports practice, many teams choose to train during the mornings in the off-season, so students may take required afternoon classes.

Pascal Mensah ’14 took the required Government 94 seminar in the spring semester of his junior year when his soccer team only had morning practices.

“I have wanted to take some seminars in the fall that I haven’t been able to take, because all of them are in the 1 [p.m.] to 7 [p.m.]  region,” Mensah said. “It’s kind of limited me in the classes I’ve wanted to take, but I have found alternatives.”

This type of sacrifice is not uncommon.

“I think a lot of people here really love what they do athletically and academically and it is hard to make a real sacrifice when you love both,” said John G. Slattery ’15, a varsity sailor and active Crimson editor, who missed one day of practice each week for a year in order to attend his social studies tutorial.

Not all student-athletes are willing to forgo practice to attend classes, and some take extra care to ensure courses do not interfere with training.

Kyle A. Criscuolo ’16, a forward on the hockey team, said that he, like many student-athletes, molds his class schedule around his team’s practices.

“I wouldn’t skip practice for class,” Criscuolo, a psychology concentrator, said. He added that although he wants to focus on social psychology, many courses offered in that track conflict with his practices.

A SHIFT IN TIME