The year-old after-school tutoring program for SRHS athletes has helped students with grades, turning in their homework, and overall maintaining a good habit of time management. Although having to do schoolwork for an extra hour after school seems unpleasant, many of the athletes find it beneficial because it’s helped them make an academic comeback.
Just last year, football head coach and athletic director, Casey Sully started an after-school tutoring program where athletes with a 2.50 or lower GPA were expected to attend. If they didn’t, it meant that they weren’t eligible for sports and would not be able to participate. In the beginning, this program was held in the Health building with almost 60-70 football players and cheerleaders all having to be crammed into 2 small classrooms. On many occasions multiple athletes didn’t have a desk to do homework and had to sit on the floor. Due to construction this year and the back area of the school closing, this program has now moved to the library and athletes seem to have a more focused study time given the library’s strict rules about quiet.
“It’s better being in here, there are much more resources such as books, textbooks, and the librarians to help us besides the teachers. We also have to actually follow the rules and be respectful to not lose this space,” said junior Bryan De Leon.
In the past years, only football players had this study time on Wednesdays but they would have no teachers or not much help. “My freshman year we didn’t have a study hall, it didn’t exist,” said senior Adan Gomez. Once Sully became athletic director in May 2023, he created a program where not only his football players would go but also cheerleaders who were also struggling with grades. With some funding as well, he was able to have 2-3 teachers, along with some student volunteers from Dominican University who helped students with any work needed.
“I see a good amount of students [probably about three-quarters of them] taking advantage of this time given,” said science teacher Bryan Casper. Since he had been helping out athletes since this program had started, he was able to notice more of a difference when it came to which grade levels paid attention and benefited from it and which ones didn’t. “Foolish behavior comes from the seniors and juniors…the upperclassmen. Since we moved to the library they can’t have food here compared to the classrooms where they were able to get food and any snack which took away from their study time,” he said.
“Although it was boring, at first, having to be in here I realized that I was able to knock out 3-4 assignments if I focused and didn’t let anything distract me,” said junior Mia Reyes. Athletes themselves have been able to see the drastic changes in their grades, many of them going up a letter grade in less than a month. The distraction was heavy of course, but with constant concentration and putting in their best effort to get work done, changes in grades were being shown and the rate of now eligible athletes started to increase. “I have more A’s this year than I did last year and I also don’t
have many F’s as well which surprises me but shows my improvement in school,” said junior Matthew Rodas.
Sully has always prioritized athletes’ education before their sports. Recently he has seen a big improvement in not only the athletes’ grades but as well as their ability to get their priorities straight and focus on their education, in order to improve themselves. Many of his football players have seen this success in themselves and appreciate their coach for bringing a program to them that would not only help them now but also in the long run.
“When I was just a football coach, I saw that our team was benefiting from this and I figured that if other athletes had an opportunity to have an hour to study once or twice a week, ineligible athletes would be eligible,” said Sully. He is proud of the success it has led them too and hopes to expand this program for every sport even if they aren’t in season yet. He believes that if athletes focus more on their academics and learn to take it seriously, it will lead to having success outside of sports.
