As of next year, Portsmouth High School will be pushing its starting time back from 7:30 to 8:20. This will mean that students won’t be getting out of school until 3:20, so starting times of some sporting events will have to be changed.

As of now, many sporting events begin at 4:00. This means that they tend to go until around 6:00pm. Because of the new time change, these games would have to be pushed even further back, until around 5:00pm. Since they will still go for about two hours, this leaves little time for students to complete the homework they receive at school.

An even bigger issue, though, is away games or meets. If a team were to travel to a town that were far away it would be even more difficult to complete homework. An argument could be made that the homework could be done on the bus rides, but that’s an unrealistic thing to ask. It is immensely hard for students to focus with all the activity and loudness on the bus, but if they wait to do it at home, this could mean they would be starting their homework at 9:00.

This change makes it extremely difficult for students to balance schoolwork and sports, an already difficult task. The athletic department and nearby schools will have to find a way to come up with a logical solution to this issue.