Butler softball players will have to take their finals earlier than most on campus.
The team will be on the East Coast for games against Massachusetts and Rhode Island the week Butler has finals.
How much class time an athlete misses depends on each player’s classes and the team’s schedule, coach Scott Hall said.
In past years, the players were not always gone for their finals, but the switch in athletic conferences from the Horizon League to the Atlantic 10 Conference affected that this year.
“(In) the Horizon League, we were always able to not schedule during finals week,” Hall said. That’d be our bye week. You know, with the A-10, with more teams and the travel and stuff, we were not able to do that.
“It’s something teams all over the country have to deal with, and we are no different, but I’m sure we will be fine.”
Sonya Hopkins, athletic coordinator of academic support, works with both professors and players to make sure students stay on course academically.
“Sonya Hopkins does a great job of coordinating with professors and players, whether it is rescheduling finals, making up tests or setting up tutors for the whole athletic department,” Hall said.
Senior infielder Meaghan Sullivan said players try to set things up as soon as possible to let professors know when they will be gone ahead of time, so they know they won’t be penalized or fall behind.
Sullivan said taking her finals early is nothing new because she has already had to take other tests early.
“It goes along with being a student-athlete,” Sullivan said. “You have to be able to deal with the academic side of things too. It’s a major part of being an athlete at Butler.”
Senior infielder Devin Dearing will be in town for her finals because she is a physician assistant major.
Her finals can be taken during the last week of April.
Most of her teammates will also be taking them that same week due to rescheduling.
“I think it is a positive,” Dearing said. “It gives us time to get (finals)done with so that when we are on the road, we can just think about softball, especially heading into the conference tournament.”
