5 a.m., alarm blares, and some South sports teams are already getting ready for the day. Groggy athletes, low on sleep and high on coffee, head out for the day hours before their peers even wake up. Morning practices have become part of the norm in today’s increasingly competitive society.

The topic of teen sleep deprivation was greatly discussed when the school board considered new start times for MCCSC schools in 2016. Despite this, MCCSC ruled to ignore the recommended start time of 8:30 a.m. by the CDC, starting instead at 8 a.m. Several sports teams at South, including swimming and baseball, have moved practices before school, or in addition to after school ones.

Senior Creighton King is a key leader of South’s swim team, and has experienced the joys of morning practices. King is up at 5:20 a.m. four days a week in order to get to South in time for the swim team’s 6 a.m. practices. Despite feeling tired at practice and afterwards, King particularly enjoys the “post-practice breakfast provided by the parents.”

Sophomore swimmer Josh Simon shares a similar sentiment. While Simon is a newer addition to the team, he has begun to adjust to the swim team’s demanding schedule. The practice still “makes [him] tired for the rest of the day,” said Simon.

The baseball team recently switched their offseason workouts to the mornings, in order to have a more consistent schedule. Sophomore baseball player Nick Cannon “enjoys the morning practices, because it allows us to get our work in before most people are even up.”

Regardless of whether the players enjoy morning practices, sleep schedules are certainly impacted. Only time will tell how advantageous before school practices are.