“When I build my schedule, I get to tailor it in a non-conflicting way that gives me time to focus on everything, strengthening my performance in both school and soccer.” For most athletes, the youth sports journey involves following a conventional route. While students in elementary school are beginning their educational journey and learning fundamental skills that will serve them for a lifetime, athletes are simultaneously learning the basics of their sport — building the foundation for their future athletic careers. By the time athletes get to high school, balancing academics and athletics becomes a top priority.
The traditional student-athlete pathway includes going to a local high school in person, from morning -to-afternoon, and balancing school life with their sport. However, for the exceptional few aiming to excel at the highest levels of their sport, the traditional high school pathway can be limiting. To unlock their full potential, many of these athletes search for alternative routes, such as an online education or private schools that cater to their schedules. These unique pathways are not just reshaping the world of youth athletics, but also redefining what it means to pursue excellence in both sports and education.
One student-athlete who took the conventional route regarding athletics in high school is senior Henry Harding, a pitcher for the Palo Alto Vikings baseball team. Harding emphasizes the difficulty of managing his time between sports and classes at Paly, particularly during his freshman and sophomore years.
“Balancing academics, school athletics, and club athletics in high school has been extremely challenging,” Harding said. “During my early years, my schedule was packed with seven classes, Paly baseball and hockey, as well as club baseball and hockey. It often felt like there wasn’t enough time in the day to fully prepare for tests or complete homework, which caused my GPA to take a hit, despite my efforts.”
However, Harding took some of the weight off his shoulders later on in his high school career.
“By my junior and senior years, I had a lighter course load and fewer sports to manage, which allowed me to focus more on academics and improve my grades,” Harding said.
Most conventional high schools have long hours of homework every week. This schedule restricts the time they have to practice during the day.
“Athletes who go to school online get more training time and there are minimal regulations on practice hours,” Paly junior Jackson Sims said. “We can only practice at Paly for a limited amount of hours per week.”
Sims is a player on the Paly baseball team, but it has not always been this way. Before Paly, he went to Serra High School, a private academy known for its outstanding athletic program. Serra provides athletes with more lenient policies, particularly on game days. Sims compares the academic and athletic differences between Paly and Serra.
“Athletes at Serra are excused from attending school on game days, additionally, they can turn in their homework delayed due to games,” Sims said. “In my experience, the schoolwork was much easier at Serra than at Paly, I had less homework and generally less to do after school, but at Paly, I have to be more strict on my time management.”
For student-athletes, performance at practices can take a hit after rigorous school work.
“It is much more difficult to go to practice after finishing two hours of homework,” Sims said.
That being said, Sims remembers that going to a private school has its drawbacks that swayed him towards Paly. Like many other athletes at private schools, Sims had to take a longer commute to get to class than if he went to his local public school.
“While attending Serra, I had to take about a half-hour drive daily to school,” Sims said. “This was a major setback for my parents because they had to drive two hours daily to drop me off and pick me up from school, and now that I am at Paly, it is significantly easier to get to school because I live very close.”
Being the athletically successful school it is, Serra naturally has a competitive nature that put Sims under pressure during his time as an athlete there.
“The pressure of playing a sport at such an athletic school made it harder to tackle expectations,” Sims said. “At Paly, my teammates and peers are more inclusive and I face less athletic pressure.”
Last year, PAUSD introduced a new pathway for students searching for a more flexible schedule for academics. Middle College has allowed PAUSD students to choose their school hours to cater to their ideal schedule. Athletes, in particular, have found the promises of Middle College to be very intriguing. Junior tennis player Oscar Barillas Otsby is among the athletes to attend Middle College.
“With Middle College, you are only required to take three hours of high school classes in person,” Barillas Otsby said. “So, my schedule is a lot more flexible.”
Otsby’s ideal schedule is one that clears out his mornings, enabling him to practice before attending school.
“On two days of the week, I have Middle College classes starting at 10 a.m,” Otsby said. “Even more conveniently, these are just my earlier day, on the other three days of the week, I do not have class until 12:30, allowing me to train in the morning or even sleep in before a tournament to get rest. This schedule gives me much more flexibility and choice.”
Junior Kiane Saad, on the other hand, finds that attending Middle College has its complications.
Saad used to be a student and cheerleader at Menlo-Atherton High School. Although she still cheers for Menlo-Atherton, Saad now attends Cañada Middle College, balancing her sport with school.
“Because my cheer practice starts just under an hour after Middle College ends, I don’t have time to rest or relax before practice, and the time between school and practice is instead filled with the commute from Cañada Middle College to Menlo-Atherton,” Saad said. “In addition, on game days that aren’t scheduled for evenings, I have to miss some of my classes to get to Menlo-Atherton and be punctual for our meeting time.”
Saad followed in her sister’s footsteps by enrolling in Middle College. Through her sister’s initiative, she was introduced to the program’s generally unsung advantages.
“Through [my sister’s] experience, I learned the academic benefits of Middle College,” Saad said. “I was drawn to the independence of the program, and I thoroughly enjoyed the idea of having late starts and a more flexible schedule, including online classes and periodic classes that are not every day.”
In addition to independence, Saad appreciates the differences in classes at Middle College, which offer her a new perspective on learning.
“I decided to do the Middle College program because I realized that I could pick my schedule for classes that only lasted a semester-long, while garnering college credit and boosting my GPA,” Saad said. “I also get to participate in niche classes that wouldn’t have been regularly offered in high school, such as Radio Broadcasting and Podcast Creation.”
Just as Middle College provides students with unique academic opportunities tailored to their interests, specialized sports academies offer athletes the training environments they need to reach the highest levels of competition.
Many top athletes strive for the top train at specialized academies that can maximize their ability and provide the best competition. The best of the best are scattered around the country, forcing these athletes to travel long distances to join their practices. To best support these traveling athletes, most of these top academies, such as the IMG Academy in Florida and the SPIRE Academy in Ohio, host private boarding schools on-site to house their athletes year-round.
Roman Woolfolk, a soccer player who was set to start as a freshman at Paly, had his life take a dramatic turn. After receiving an offer to join the New England Revolution, he embraced the opportunity to compete, train and continue his education with the team, marking a pivotal moment in his journey.
“This academy is a better path to go pro, but it also gives you a better support system.” Woolfolk said. “If I went to a normal high school, training and matches would interfere with my schedule, [but] at the academy, the schedule is 100% based around my training schedule, which makes it easier for me to improve and manage school.”
Not only does the academy route allow more time for student-athletes to train, but it also provides them with personalized paths for learning.
“I believe the academy has a new honest training schedule where I feel that I am improving every day,” Woolfolk said. “If I was at a traditional school, I would not be able to spend as much time training.”
With high athletic expectations existing at this specialized academy, players are given more flexible policies regarding schoolwork.
“If there is a game far away, such as in Texas or Orlando, and we can not turn in an assignment, we are given tutors or extended due dates because everybody is on the same page. Such procedure helps me balance school and soccer,” Woolfolk said.
Having personalized tutoring has helped Woolfolk with his grades a lot, ensuring that he stays on track academically while pursuing his athletic goals. The flexibility in scheduling allows him to focus on his soccer commitments without falling behind in the classroom.
“The teachers understand what we experience as student-athletes,” Woolfolk said. “They make sure we are supported, whether it’s extra help on assignments or adjusting deadlines when we travel for tournaments.”
Although life at the academy is helping Woolfolk greatly improve his game and academics, he believes his social life has taken a toll.
“I have always loved school events, and now I feel that I am missing a big part of that,” Woolfolk said. “Going into this academy, we do not get proms, homecomings or school events. In the athletic process, I miss out on lots of the high school experience.”
When comparing the most significant difference between traditional high school and his academy, Woolfolk addressed the difference in community.
“I miss the atmosphere of the traditional school environment,” Woolfolk said. “Many people don’t like school but enjoy it for its social aspect. At the academy, the mood feels muted compared to when I visit Paly.”
On the other hand, junior Miko Oppenheim attends Laurel Springs Online School while playing club soccer for Breakers FC. Prior to this school year. Oppenheim attended Gunn High School, a top-ranked public school known for its rigorous academics, and switched to online school because his demanding high school and competitive soccer team were not easily compatible. Sometimes, Oppenheim would even find himself conflicted between test days and tournaments, forced to skip one for the other.
“This [Online School] is beneficial because it lets me prioritize my sport without sacrificing my grades or the classes I take,” Oppenheim said. “When I build my schedule, I get to tailor it in a non-conflicting way that gives me time to focus on everything, strengthening my performance in both school and soccer.”
This new path has allowed Oppenheim to excel further in both fields, through added freedom.
“With more flexibility, I can work out more and travel for tournaments without missing school,” Oppenheim said. “Generally, I plan my day around soccer, because those hours are out of my control. My schoolwork and tests can be completed as I please, so I study whenever I am not working out. Since I gained more power over my routine, my grades have enhanced and I have been improving drastically in my sport.”
However, the online education pathway is not exactly perfect. Oppenheim claims to miss the social outlets that come with being a student at a traditional high school, such as spirit rallies and sports games. With online school alienating him at times, Oppenheim’s social life has taken a hit as a trade-off to advance in academics and soccer.
“I spend my free time hanging out with friends who also attend various online schools,” Oppenheim said. “These are friends I already knew when I was at Gunn, and we have grown closer since joining online school and slightly drifting from our previous peers.”
As student-athletes navigate the delicate balance between academics and athletics, alternative education pathways have emerged as vital tools to support their ambitions. Whether through specialized sports academies, online schooling or flexible programs like Middle College, these options provide the necessary structure for athletes to pursue excellence in both fields. While each path comes with trade-offs — such as missing traditional high school experiences or facing social isolation — these athletes make sacrifices in pursuit of their long-term goals. Ultimately, their journeys highlight the evolving landscape of youth sports and education, proving that success is not confined to a single, conventional route but can be achieved through a variety of tailored approaches.
