Spring Break is a time when most students go on vacations, hang out with friends and visit family. For others, it is a time to binge on Netflix and dive into social media. If any of you were on Twitter during the break, you likely saw the prevalent comedic outbursts comparing student athletes and AP students. While these tweets were intended to entertain, they did bring out differing opinions on the work ethics of different groups of students.

Junior Blake Webber is a goalie for De Soto’s varsity soccer team. He outlined some of the difficult aspects of being a student athlete.

“Some of the hardest things are trying to manage school work and athletics,” Webber said. “It helps though, because you always want to complete your homework and get good grades because the team needs you. It helps motivate you.”

He also spoke of the benefits to being an athlete at school.

“[It’s great] getting to be on a team with a bunch of great guys and playing soccer, which I love,” Webber said.

When comparing AP students and athletes, Webber takes into account the work done on both sides.

“Student athletes work hard in the weight room, in the field and in the classroom,” Webber said. “They may physically work harder, but AP students study and do lots of [other] work, so it’s just in different ways. I would say they’re equal, and you can’t really compare them.”

Junior Jessica Roberts is currently taking AP Chemistry, AP Psychology, AP Language and Composition, Calculus and French III. She commented on the life of an AP student.

“I have three AP classes on White days, which makes White days dreadful sometimes,” Roberts said. “If there ever happens to be a lot of tests during one week it can be stressful to decide which classes to make a priority.”

AP classes may be difficult, but they also provide benefits to students that take them, according to Roberts.

“I feel like I will be more prepared for actual college classes, especially Chemistry and Calculus. My GPA is also weighted, so that is nice,” Roberts said.

Roberts’s opinion on student athletes was similar to Webber’s.

“I feel like they are just two different struggles and one is more mentally challenging, and the other is physically challenging,” Roberts said. “I also think that athletes who are not in multiple AP classes do not understand the kind of stress that AP students experience, but they [athletes] have their own problems too.”

Junior Connor Strouse is in the middle of the work ethic analysis of these two groups of students. Strouse is on the varsity football and baseball teams and is in AP U.S. History, Pre-Calc and was involved in the theater department’s production of the musical Grease. He acknowledged the same struggles and benefits of both student groups.

“I believe that both AP students and athletes go through the same type of challenges because, most of the time, if you don’t do sports you [take] more AP classes, which can take just as much [work],” Strouse said. “On the flip side, athletes have to get by with less help from teachers because of how much time [sports] take. Athletes and AP students are very different but both are put under equal amounts of stress.”

Whether you believe that athletes push the work ethic limit on the field farther or AP students expand education ideals wider, it is important to note the work that both groups put into their activities and classes.

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