The phrase ‘No days off’ is commonly heard in sports to inspire athletes to reach success. With Monday’s snow day staring them in the face, it became the coach’s call on whether to continue with practices. For many of the student athletes, ‘no days off’ was exactly the case. Most of the sports that are currently in season continued with practice as planned. 

The Oakland swimming and diving team had a practice in the morning and afternoon on top of weights with the strength trainer.  

The men’s basketball team, after being stranded in Akron, Ohio for an extra night on Sunday, got off the bus and headed straight to the O’rena for a morning practice. 

The baseball team took the snow day as an opportunity to lift weights as a team. 

On the contrary, some of the other Oakland athletic teams such as track and field, volleyball and soccer had the entire day off. 

But there’s one thing that a wonderful snow day buys every student athlete: time – something student athletes generally don’t have enough of. 

Time to catch up on homework. Time to relax and get caught up on sleep.  And for many, even for just an hour or so, time to pretend that they are neither students nor athletes. 

On the snow day Monday, many of the student athletes gathered to go sledding together. They created their own sleds out of anything they could find: trays, laundry baskets, and garbage bags. They had to get creative. 

Members of the men’s and women’s soccer, track and field, men’s basketball, volleyball, and baseball teams came together share laughs and create memories. 

“What made the snow day so special was getting a bunch of student athletes together to hang out and have fun,” said redshirt freshman volleyball player, Sammy Condon. “It’s not every day that we get a big group like that together at once, so it’s nice we had a snow day and a chance to do that.” 

A snow day as kids meant a day of relaxation. For some student athletes, it still meant practicing but a day off from classes was certainly well deserved. For other athletes, it meant that they got to enjoy it like kids again, on the sledding hill.