Sophie McGarry ’29
Photo courtesy of Mahika Ralhan ’26
It’s no secret that early dismissals are synonymous with the student-athlete experience at EA. Each year, nearly every student misses classes for athletic events and is forced to make up work afterward. This year, students and teachers alike have reported experiencing an unusually high number of early dismissals. But are athletes actually missing more classes than before? If so, what can students do to deal with the added burden of missing classes?
For students, early dismissals for sports games are yet another source of additional work. Students at EA already grapple with large daily courseloads, and when combined with missing important lessons and lectures, the sheer volume of work can become nearly unbearable. When referring to the added strain that early dismissals place on her schedule, Eliana DeGennaro ’26, field hockey co-captain, states, “Not even just time, but energy as well. We’re so tired from the day and the night before. If we have a test, we are usually up really late, so it’s hard to have the energy for both athletics and academics.”
Early dismissals appear to be especially disruptive this year, according to numerous students and faculty. According to Erin Bilbao, Modern Languages Department Chair, “There were definitely two days in September where there was a large concentration of early dismissals for multiple sports that I don’t think we’ve had in the past few years.” Asher Wan ’26 says, “I’m not too surprised anymore when several students have to leave in the second half of the day for early dismissals.”
However, according to Max Kelly ’06, III Form Dean, the actual number of early dismissals this year is roughly the same as in years past. He says, “I think [the number of dismissals] is about the same. I haven’t noticed anything out of the ordinary.” Todd Farile, EA’s Athletic Director, likewise hasn’t noticed a dramatic increase, although he admits that there have been unusually long stretches of multiple consecutive away games. “Every once in a while, you feel like, wow, we’re on the road so much. And this year, there was a two-week period where I was like, we’re away way more than we’re home. And so it kind of ebbs and flows.”
An underlying reason for the abnormal disruption that early dismissals have caused this year is simply bad luck. Unlike other schools, EA’s rotating schedule theoretically works to minimize the impact of early dismissals on any one block. Even if certain teams schedule their matches on the same day each time, EA’s unique scheduling system spreads out these dismissals across different blocks every week. Even so, some classes have still been hit especially hard by early dismissals. Hank Goebeler ’26 says, “It’s almost always E or C last block for our dismissals.”
Unfortunately for students, it’s unlikely that the role early dismissals play in their daily lives will decrease any time soon. According to Fairlie, the athletic department already considers different ways to minimize the disturbance that dismissals cause to athletes. In addition to evaluating optimal dismissal times, such as whether students should be dismissed at 1:47 or 2:10, Fairlie says, “We try to do the best we can with what we can control in terms of certain teams leaving too often or too many times over a short period of time.” Instead, Fairlie and other faculty urge students to communicate with their respective coaches and utilize the resources at EA to better manage their time.
Coaches all around EA recognize the added stress athletics place on their athletes and want to assist students with balancing their multifaceted ambitions. Assistant field hockey coach and lower school teacher Keishla Figueroa says, “I think we get to know your personality so well and how you are on the field. So when something’s off—it typically does come back to academics or stress—we just try to be here and support you and just try to give you as much support as we can during the athletic piece of field hockey.” For his own team, Fairlie has tried to assist his athletes by designating certain stretches of practice as a study hall. “There were four weeks where we took an hour from practice and took [our athletes] to the study hall with a coach to get some work done because they felt a little overwhelmed after a couple weeks.” Additionally, Kelly highlights the services offered at EA that are specially designed to aid students who feel behind with schoolwork. “Work with our learning specialist to come up with different strategies for time management and test preparation,” he suggests.
Regardless of the actual number of early dismissals this year, they continue to be a nuisance for many students at EA, and will remain an integral component of their weekly schedules into the near future. But by engaging in an active dialogue with coaches and better utilizing the resources at their disposal, students just might have a chance to stay on top of their schoolwork while still achieving their athletic ambitions.
