The life of a high school student is a difficult one. Spending at least six hours and school, followed by hours of homework and studying. On top of that, many students are involved with extracurricular activities. Some are school related, while some aren’t. One of the most daunting, though, is football.

There are only 10 games in a high school football regular season, but there is so much more that goes into it than meets the eye. There are practices everyday, workouts and conditioning. It starts in the spring, and goes all the way until October, or even as late as November. Being a student athlete is time consuming, especially when having to balance the workload that is school as well.

Andy Wittenwyler, the starting quarterback at Thunderbird High School, says it’s not easy having to balance both school and football. “The hardest part of balancing football and school is trying to make sure you don't overschedule yourself,” the senior said. “Especially when one of the two starts getting tough. I'd argue school is more time consuming, although I spend more of my free time occupied by football by choice.”

Luckily for Andy, there isn’t a certain GPA he has to maintain in order to keep playing as per guidelines, unlike some schools which enforce strict requirements. There isn't a specific GPA required to keep playing, unless you're failing,” he said. “However, I hold myself to a certain standard and if my grades start slipping, I recognize that and start shifting more of my focus that way.”

It definitely is a difficult situation to be in, especially as a teenager. School is without a doubt the top priority, but you can’t just skip a game because you need to study. You can’t just miss a practice because there’s a homework assignment that needs to be done.

When asked if student-athletes deserve more recognition, Wittenwyler said that only "some" deserve it. “Some student-athletes deserve an extra amount of recognition,” he said. “A lot of kids go through the motions everyday, but those who try their hardest in both realms and really try to perfect their craft in the classroom and on the field definitely deserve some form of recognition.”

Which should be the case. Hundreds of kids across all high schools find themselves struggling, wether it’s not enough time to study, or they are simply too busy. Student athletes make sacrifices to not only their own time, potentially on their schoolwork as well.

It’s just a part of the high school life for millions of kids every year. However, they do need to start getting more of the recognition than they currently are getting.