WOODBURY – It’s nearly impossible. Rushing home from the 5th set of a heated volleyball match, scrambling to get ready, and hurrying out the door to make it to the long awaited Homecoming dance on time.

Luckily for NHS student athletes, this situation will be avoided as the sports games originally scheduled for the night of Homecoming have been rescheduled. Nonnewaug’s Homecoming Dance is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 9th at the Grand Oak Villa in Oakville. 

Girls JV soccer coach Rebecca Pope wanted to prevent students from having to make the difficult between a sports game or a school event. 

 “We’re rescheduling the game, because we don’t want athletes to have to choose between Homecoming, a standard high school experience, and a game that is also a standard high school experience,” said Pope. “There’s already so much on student athletes’ plates that you don’t want them to have to pick and choose between two important things.”

The fall season is a busy time for many of the students at Nonnewaug, as there are seven different sports offered to students. Being a student athlete balancing school, sports, and all the events that Nonnewaug offers can be stressful. 

“I was really mad when I realized I had a game on Homecoming and my original thought was that I wasn’t going [to the game],” said Eliza Butkus, a sophomore on the girls soccer team. “Then I realized it was really bad for the team if I didn’t go and I wouldn’t be a good teammate at all, but I really wanted to go to homecoming because it’s a really fun experience that I didn’t want to miss.”

Homecoming is a popular and anticipated event amongst Nonnewaug students and teachers. Every high school student dreams of going to homecoming, and then hearing that you won’t have enough time to get ready with your friends can be upsetting for some. 

For a freshman athlete this might be hard to hear since this is their first year having the Homecoming experience that they don’t want to miss out on.

“I was upset when I found out [that homecoming was on the same night as a match] because I want time to get ready for homecoming, and I don’t think we should have the pressure of having a sporting event on the same day,” said Quinn Greaves a freshman on the volleyball team. “I think a lot of people would be stressed about the timing of it all. “

But now students get the relief of not having to worry about a time crunch since all the games have been moved to other dates. 

“I’m just relieved that the match and games were moved,” says Erin O’leary, a junior volleyball player. “Now nobody has to stress.”