Editoria

NSA faculty And Staff Pull A Fast One!

By: Kelsey Lynch

Bizzle catching up on some sleep.

LAKE PLACID---At National Sports Academy, the faculty and staff feel as though the student-athletes are unaware of how much sleep is necessary and how it can affect one’s performance. 

How important is sleep to an athlete? According to Cheri Mah, a researcher at Stanford’s Sleep Disorders Clinic, “peak performance can only occur when an athlete’s sleep and sleep habits are optimal.”

Over the last year, the curfew for students on the weekend at NSA has been changed from 11:00 PM to 10:00 P.M. As you could guess, the student’s were anything but happy when they found out. The teachers are “taking away our freedom,” said NSA Senior Maggie Cross. 

With training, practice, and school these individuals rarely have any time to themselves. They participate in races and games all over the country every weekend. So when do they have time to be normal teenagers?

A free weekend is the only chance the students can walk into town, see a movie, or just hangout with one another. With only two days of freedom, the kids like to do as much as they can before the clock hits 10 o’clock.

Although the kids feel as though this change is unnecessary, the faculty’s main concerns are in the best interest of the students.

The faculty’s main concern is the lack of sleep the student’s obtain during the week and the wasted sleep on the weekends. Luke Hudak added,  “No matter what time we set the curfew to, the students will still go to bed an hour or two after that.” So, why not push the time up?

If the students are staying up after the curfew then, making the time earlier will potentially give the students another hour of sleep.

There is also concern with disturbance and the lack of respect for other students when it comes to noise.

Every weekend all of the NSA teams are on different schedules and competing in different events. Therefore, some students may have a free weekend while others could be preparing for a weekend filled of games and races.

If those students who are free for the weekend are loud and obnoxious then the students who need to get rest will have trouble.

When I asked Senior, Martha Smith about how she felt about the early curfew she replied with, “I mean were in High School, people should know when to go to bed.”

Although students should know how much sleep they need in order to perform, that is not always the case. There are some individuals who choose to stay up late and do not abide by the rules of dorm life behavior.