Buzzer Beater

Hanchen Ou ‘26 and I talk about our experiences of being a student-athlete on our new podcast the Buzzer Beater. 
​On the podcast we speak on topics like making that transition from student to athlete. “I mean, the best way to do that is just manage your time,” Ou said. “have your schedule every single day and do as much work as you can in your study hall.” 
This is the story of many student athletes that truly love their sport and aren’t just doing it for something to fill up their schedule. Hanchen is someone who already has a rigorous schedule with school, but he adds to it through his practices through school but also has outside training with The Lab.
Another topic we spoke on was how athletes that miss many classes due to leaving school early for games stay up to date with the work and material being taught in the class. “I mean, it just I would always think at different points, I would think about different things. So if I already left the class, I should not care anything about the class. The only thing I'm focusing on is just playing the game. But when I get back to the classroom, I should not think anything about baseball. I should just focus on the class work and the homework and do as much as much as you can. So it's kind of like that mental switch on and off and like where are you all that,” said Hanchen.
Differences on how schools affect the life of a student-athlete came up. Both of us coming from different schools on two different sides of the spectrum helped us get an experienced point of view on the situation. Hanchen who came from China where the school days extend over 13 hours. I came from Salem where the material was a little less and not as difficult due to the eight classes a day school plan. “It's a big difference because at Salem one the work wasn't half as hard. I mean, it's not that it wasn't as hard. It's just the way that it was handed out was a lot different. and it's like it was a whole different ball game. Like and it was just like so they kind of were a little less understanding, but it was a lot less work” I said in my Salem to NCS comparison.  
After a good conversation between my good friend, podcast member, Hanchen and I, we went on towards the future and how we will balance this load in college. With my school, Randolph College, no classes are held on Wed. giving me more time to finish work from my professors. In Hanchen's case he wants to go to an Ivy League school. “I will try my best. So for an Ivy league school, they like a lot of good athletes who don't choose to go there because if you don't have a strong academic like level, you couldn't graduate from those schools. So if you want to go to an Ivy League school, you have to have confidence in your academics. So for me, I would just say, I would just focus on getting the work done during classes, just like high school and also try my best to play baseball,” Hanchen said.