By Michael Crooks ’14

MCPS require students to acquire 75 SSL hours to graduate high school. Seventy-five hours of community service is attainable, especially considering that students have roughly seven years to complete the community service. However, for many high school students, especially athletes, community service becomes more of a burden than a rewarding experience. During their respective sport’s season, student athletes typically have school all day, practice for a couple hours right after, and homework to complete when they get home. Some even have jobs to juggle as well. It is easy for people who don’t play a school sport to say that student athletes should complete their community service on weekends or during the summer, but these people fail to understand that sports often continue on the weekends and in the off-season. Plus, everybody deserves time for relaxation and other important activities.