Gilroy
– The earlier start of daylight saving time might have resulted
in less sleep for students, but it did ease the tension between
athletics and academics, which often butt heads at the end of the
school day.
Gilroy – The earlier start of daylight saving time might have resulted in less sleep for students, but it did ease the tension between athletics and academics, which often butt heads at the end of the school day.
The time shift – two weeks sooner than years past because of a governmental mandate – put the sunset after 7pm, allowing the Gilroy High School athletic department to schedule baseball and softball games later in the day and keep students in class longer.
The change “helps us a little bit,” said Jack Daley, athletic director at the high school. “It really helps us at home (games). Then there’s much more time to get things done.”
Before daylight saving time began, the baseball team started games at 3 pm and girls started their softball games, which are typically faster, at 3:45 pm. For away games, boys sometimes missed two hours of class so as to have adequate time to be bussed and warm up for the game. Even for home games, they sometimes missed nearly an hour to prepare for play.
Baseball games now start at four in the afternoon while softball games start at 4:30pm. When games are at home, students can complete their last period classes and still have more than an hour to warm up.
Yet away games remain a problem for boys.
“It’s still a bit of a rush,” Daley said. “It’s still almost an hour wherever we go on a bus. That’s something we can’t control.”
Until this year, daylight saving time was scheduled to start on the last Sunday in March and run through the last Sunday in October. Staring this year – as dictated by the U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005 in an attempt to conserve electricity nationwide – daylight saving time began the second Sunday in March and will run through the second Sunday in November.
The extra two weeks of later sunsets – and its effects on scheduling – that schools are now seeing will be felt during the fall season as well, Daley said.
In particular, this will allow for a later start time of girls tennis matches. Other fall sports, such as water polo and cross-country might not benefit from the later hours because they already have difficulties finishing by the time it is dark.
Utilizing lighted sports complexes could solve this problem but few schools in Gilroy’s league have them.
High schools recognize the importance of academics and the impact athletic events can have on missed class time, but also must factor in physical constraints when planning fall matches, Daley said.
“We’re at the mercy of the sunlight and the facilities that schools in our league have,” he said.
