As the holiday season came and went, we are now back to the grind that is the month of January in high school. With January comes the most important part of winter sports as section play heats up. This means long practices and a countless number of sore nights spent at home. With January also comes midterm projects and exams. This means torture for some student athletes as they have to juggle school responsibilities along with team responsibilities. Midterm exam time is without a shadow of a doubt the most difficult time for a student athlete during any of the sports seasons. As is often forgotten in high school sports, the players are called student athletes for a reason. Being a student comes first and foremost. However, it seems that the trend has become athlete first and student second in today’s society. There is a constant power struggle between coaches and teachers today as coaches feel that sports are more important and teachers feel that their work is more important. Each side has their point, but the tough balancing act the student athletes must perform is what molds them into successful adults. By being able to maximize their use of free time student athletes can perform well both in athletics and in the classroom. After the fall, winter, and spring sports season, the Beaver County Times honors the student athletes that were successful in juggling sports and school by earning straight A’s. During the fall season only nine students out of the seven fall sports made the Times’ Scholastic All-Star list. The honorable mention list included around 50 other student athletes. This low number of straight A student athletes could be caused by one of a few things: the rising level of education here at Freedom, the lack of fall student athletes at our small school, or the lack of time management by the student athletes who participated in a fall sport. Time will only tell how the winter athletes will deal with scholastic responsibilities in this extremely difficult time of the year. Failure often breeds success, so no matter how the dust settles after the midterms and section battles, one thing can be assured: these athletes will come out better people after working through the January struggles.