By Shane McAdams

When you’re a collegiate athlete there are many things you do that sets you apart from other college students. One of the things that student athletes do is dedicate huge amounts of their time to their sport. From practices, lifting, conditioning to maintaining their bodies. Student athletes do all this during the school year while balancing classes. But what about when there is no class?

During breaks in classes, just because there is no class doesn’t mean athletes get that time off too. During many breaks, sports teams are still practicing as if they weren’t on an academic break.

During 2018 Christmas break, several of the sports teams at QU cut short their break. Among those teams to cut their break were the men’s and women’s basketball teams and the men’s volleyball team.

Many of the members of the men’s volleyball team arrived back on campus on the first day of the new year, cutting their Christmas break almost two weeks short.

Sophomore Zach Reider is on the men’s volleyball team.

“We came back on New Years Day and had practice on the second. At first it wasn’t too bad but then we started having basically three practices a day. We would have lifting in the morning, lunch, practice, dinner, and then another practice. We did this for basically a week and a half before school even started. But now that school is started we toned it back because with classes we don’t have that much time. During that week and a half though, it was brutal,” Reider said.

While two weeks off your Christmas break is nothing to look lightly upon, the men’s and women’s basketball teams sacrificed even more of their break for the sake of their sport.

Taylor Hickey is a senior guard on the women’s basketball team.

“We actually had to be back on campus on the 27th of December, and we had practice that night two days after Christmas. We had two practices a day for several days and then we traveled to two tournaments out of state, before school even started. We also had two practices a day and that really just pushes you even harder,” Hickey said.

One of the biggest challenges these sports teams face when they come back to school early is keeping these athletes feed.

During Christmas break the cafeteria on campus does not serve meals like it normally does during school.

The women’s basketball team was back so early that the players had to carpool to the grocery stores, and cook their meals in the Student Living Center where players on the team have access to a kitchen.

Men’s volleyball players returned to campus on January 2nd. Because of this they were able to have team meals in the cafeteria on campus. The men’s volleyball team would have two meals a day served in the cafeteria. While those who wanted breakfast could meet at a on campus house to cook breakfast as a team.

Our student athletes here on campus train in many cases all year round for their respective sports. This includes breaks like Christmas and even spring break. However, that’s just part of being a collegiate athlete.