Student athletes are pretty common, but a student athlete like Ellie Spillane is very uncommon.

Ellie plays volleyball, basketball, and track, and is also on a club volleyball team. Along with these sports, she also is taking AP Literature, AP Calculus, and AP Psychology this year. Last year, she took AP US History and AP Biology.

Ellie also takes Foods and Art, which she considers her easier classes. Ellie said, “I don’t like my AP classes as much as Foods and Art. They’re a lot more stressful.”

Time management is a thing considered very important for student athletes, and Ellie has it mastered. After school, her practice or games last for about 2 ½ hours, and her homework takes around 2 hours. Though getting home from late games leaves little time to complete her homework, she always manages to get everything done.

School comes first for Ellie, but she considers herself more talented in sports. Her talent and hard work always pays off for her and the teams she plays for, like when she and the girls basketball team won their sectional championship last year.

Although she sees school as her priority, Ellie sometimes finds that sports take away time from her classes, especially last year during track season. “I had to miss entire AP Biology classes on some days because of track meets,” Ellie said. “It was hard to find time to make all that up.”

Being a student athlete is a tough, time consuming job, but Ellie manages to push through and get rewarded with great grades and amazing accomplishments in every sport she plays. By: Lily Kurt