By Karrington Stewart
In the 2021-2022 school year, multiple athletes have complained about being overworked, burned out, and not receiving enough breaks to recover their bodies.
The majority of sports teams in Xavier University attend practice early mornings about five to six times a week.
“Being a student-athlete at Xavier is all about what you make it out to be. You have to give it your all or nothing at all,” said Kynnedy Turner, a Xavier track and field athlete. “I am homesick because of track. I haven’t been able to be home since winter break, and even then, I had to return early,” Turner added.
Three Xavier track and field athletes qualified for the Southland National Conference, which was held at the beginning of March. Those attending Xavier know that this event was held the same week as spring break, which means that those student-athletes didn’t experience spring break this year.
“Since the tennis season has started, I’ve only had one weekend to myself, and on top of school work, I get less sleep than I did during the off-season,” said Tianna Dixon, a member of the XULA tennis team.
Since Dixon has started playing for Xavier, she has experienced knee, ankle, and back injuries and yet still competed during her matches.
“One thing that Xavier has done to try to help their athletes is require students to complete a certain amount of hours in study hall every week,” Dixon said. “But this almost serves no purpose because of the amount of athletes that talk and play there. You can’t focus even if you try,” Dixon added.
Many athletes continue to voice their opinions and thoughts about not truly receiving breaks throughout college.
“I’ve been training and practicing for basketball since the end of June and haven’t received a real break since,” said Jathen Ross, a freshman basketball player at Xavier. “I do value this experience because I believe that the coaches are only preparing us for games and the real world,” Ross said.