Though there are no games during finals, in the past players have found ways to make up for tests when they were on the road.

“In the past, I have had to work on take home exams on the same day as a game or the same weekend of a trip,” senior forward Matthew Colliflower wrote in an email.

During reading days, players are given a break from their daily practices in order to prepare for their final exams.

“We don’t have practice during reading days,” said junior forward Abby Holland. “Typically we don’t have practices during finals either.”

This free time is used to study.

“We get off all reading days, and then we don’t have any games until after finals,” said senior forward Danny Rivera.

Some players find time to hone their skills during finals. These practices are at the volition of the athletes and aren’t required by coaches.

“They’re more individual based,” Holland said. “It’s when you have time to go in and get some work done, get some shots up.”

Athletes can practice at this time based on what works for them.

“It really just depends on when you can fit that in your schedule,” Rivera said. “Some of us will either go get a lift in with Daniel, our strength coach, or we’ll just go get shots up on our own.”

Individual practice and shooting sessions serve as a nice break from the stress of finals.

“Finals are obviously an extremely stressful time,” Holland said. “We get one to two hours where we don’t think about school and just get to go play.”

Though balancing school and basketball is difficult, Rivera said time on the court helps clear his head.

“You can look at it as a break to try to decompress from all the stress and the studying,” Rivera said.

Once finals are finally over, basketball players will stay on campus long after their fellow students have left.

Despite having to remain on campus, the athletes wellcome the break from school work.

“It definitely feels like school’s over because even though we’re here on campus, we’re just having fun with each other. So even though we can’t go home until the 19th or the 20th after finals, we’re all just hanging out with each other,” Holland said. “We’re with each other 24/7 when we’re here over the break, so even though we’re still technically at Trinity, it definitely feels like school’s out.”

The women will play four away games starting on Dec. 15, while the men face two teams.

Both the men’s and women’s teams get to spend the holidays with their families, but the week between Christmas and New Year’s is filled with home games.

Of course, balancing school and athletics is not easy. Colliflower described the hardest parts of being a student athlete.

“Being physically and mentally tired yet having to work on assignments after games or practice,” Colliflower wrote. “Traveling for away trips steals your weekend, so you have to find time to do housekeeping stuff during the week around homework and practice.”

Student athletes work extremely hard to succeed on the court and in the classroom.

“I signed up to be a student athlete. I knew what I was getting into,” Holland said.

The men’s team has two pre-season matchups this coming week on Friday at 6 p.m. and on Saturday at 4 p.m. and an exhibition match up on Tuesday against The University of Incarnate Word.