With finals occuring on Jan. 24 and 25, junior hockey player Jackson Hand said he often feels overwhelmed over this time of the year.

Junior hockey player and IB diploma candidate Neil Walsh said finals will be manageable if he he puts in the work needed.

“I have four finals, I think, and the IB Chemistry one is four days long, which is quite a lot on top of hockey, but I’ll get through it if I work through it and study,” Walsh said.

According to athletic director Andy Ewald, the coaches are aware of the increasing responsibilities of student athletes during finals and school in general.

“I think the coaches are a little more conscious to the fact that kids’ schedules might be different and their mind might be somewhere else, so I think it’s just being more aware,” Ewald said.

Hand said the nonstop grind between games and sports keeps him preoccupied almost everyday of the week.

“Between practice and games, we are basically at it everyday — around five days of practice and games about twice a week,” Hand said.

Junior basketball player Anthony Odens said his basketball schedule, similar to hockey, consists of two games and then practice every week day.

“We practice basically everyday after school and then usually Saturday mornings and have games every Tuesday and Friday,” Odens said.

Hand said he knows finals week will be a lot to handle, but wants to make sure not to get overwhelmed with the tasks at hand.

“I think finals will definitely add to the stress, but I just have to remember to take things one at a time and take breaks to get through it,” Hand said.

Ewald said responsibility for students changes during finals week, because they focus their time more on studying rather than completing homework in classes.

“It’s managing their time and during normal time its balancing homework compared to balancing something different like studying for finals,” Ewald said.

According to Odens, although the responsibility can be a lot, he manages to find time for homework during the weekend because of the lack of energy post practice.

“I really don’t get to stressed about everything and I usually do a lot of work on the weekend because I don’t like doing homework after practice because I’m usually pretty tried,” Odens said.