Students at Blue Valley often carry the workload of school and a sport on their shoulders.

Getting home after 6 p.m., working, volunteering and still having to do homework after everything can lead to a lot of stress.

Imagine having to miss an entire day of school every week for a tournament and then not getting home until 7 or 8 p.m.

This is what the BV girls golf team has to adjust to from the start of the school year to mid-October, said senior Alexis Vance, who is captain of the team.

“Toward the beginning of the season, we have about one tournament a week,” Vance said. “In the middle of the season, we have about two tournaments a week. Luckily, it hasn’t gotten this bad, but we have had three tournaments a week.”

Vance said sometimes they can go to the first periods of school before a tournament, but other times, they leave the school at 7 a.m.

“It definitely affects your grades,” Vance said. “Teachers tend to get angry when you [say], ‘I’m going to be gone this week, this week and next week.’ I don’t think they realize we’re in the same boat. We don’t want to miss that much class, but we do it for our sport because we love it.”

Sophomore Lauren Van Winkle said golf has about the same amount of stress as other sports.

“It can be hard to get caught up in what you’re doing,” Van Winkle said. “I usually come in to talk to the teacher to catch up on what I missed and study a little bit harder.”

Van Winkle said the next years of school will be more stressful if she continues golf.

“As the years go on, the classes get harder, and I will take more AP and honors classes,” Van Winkle said. “[It] can be a little bit more stressful missing those classes.”

Vance said to adjust to missing classes, the team will stay up later to get homework done and will study together in the van on the way to tournaments. Some days, they get practice off for school work.

“[Golf season is] stress school-wise [and] golf tournament-wise,” Vance said. “You get back from a golf tournament [late], and you still have all of your homework, chores and activities to do. Sometimes, it can lead to a little sleep deprivation when you’re an honors student.”

However, Vance said it’s all worth it and said she loves how supportive all the girls on the team are.

“It’s a great group of girls,” Vance said. “We just like to do a lot of team building activities together. We’re not competitive within our group. We understand we’re doing everything for the betterment of the team.”

The golf team played eight tournaments total and got second at EKL. Vance said they hoped to earn top three at State.

“We should play well, although it will be the hardest course we play all year,” she said. “We’re definitely [prepared] — we practice on similiar-styled courses.”

The team competed at State on Monday, Oct. 19. Results were unavailable at the time of press.