One of the many student-athletes at Hillsdale, swimmer junior Inez McNichols, comes up for air while swimming butterfly at the her 2026 conference meet.
Courtesy | Hillsdale Athletic Department
Junior Alyson Early swims 4,000 yards before the sun rises.
“I wake up at 5:30 a.m., get ready, and then I go pick up all my friends,” Early, a Charger swimmer, said. “Then it’s usually a really hard practice.”
Hillsdale is home to 16 varsity sports teams and hundreds of student-athletes. Alongside the rest of the student body, athletes walk the halls of Lane and Kendall and struggle through the core classes. But there’s much more to the life of an athlete.
For Early, Tuesday and Thursday start with more than an hour gliding through the pool, breathing chlorine-scented air. But that’s just the beginning.
“Then I work, go to class, and then we lift,” Early said. “Then we swim again for two hours, and then we have dinner, and then it’s like trying to get homework done, and it’s almost impossible, but you get into a routine.”
Hours of training on top of a hectic Hillsdale schedule are typical for athletes. But according to senior women’s basketball player Payton Adkins, practice is just the beginning.
“If I have a slower day of practice or classes, I’ll try to go in and get shots up, or different ball handling drills two or three times a week,” Adkins said. “Everyone knows you have practice and lifts, but no one necessarily sees all the outside stuff you have to do.”
Freshman baseball pitcher Brodie Romnek starts his day in a very ordinary fashion, with breakfast and four classes. But once Romnek’s last class gets out, it’s time to grind.
Romnek said with baseball being in season, practice on the field starts at 2 p.m. and ends sometime between 4-5:30 p.m. As a pitcher, Romnek begins his practice by warming up his arms before starting a specific set of drills designed to make him the best pitcher possible.
“Being a pitcher is different from being a position player,” Romnek said. “As one of the pitchers, I start out doing dynamic warmup, throwing practice, then fielding practice, shoulder work with bands, stuff like that, and then go shag for batting practice. After that it’s your own lift.”
Romenk said the lift ends from 6-7 p.m. Afterwards, he eats dinner and does homework until 10 p.m. or 11:30 p.m.
Athlete, but still a student
For Romnek, all that time in practice makes the remaining few hours a precious commodity.
“You’ve got to be really active on time management,” Romnek said. “It’s hard to go to office hours, so you’ve got to get stuff done fast.”
When Adkins steps off the court to attend her Wednesday psychopathology class, she brings the same goal-driven mindset.
“I feel like athletes are, in a way, looked at like we’re just here for our sport,” Adkins said. “But I know at least six of my teammates who are physician assistants, and a couple are going into med school. We’re just as devoted to the academic side as we are to the athletic side.”
According to Adkins, there’s a common drive behind shooting baskets and writing lab reports.
“Why we get up for the 6 a.m. practice or lift every day carries over to academics,” Adkins said. “The athletes here are going on to do something bigger with their life, purpose, and degree, and I think that same discipline carries over to both of them.”
When Romnek steps onto the practice field, that bigger “why” stays in the forefront of his mind.
“I know I gotta put in 100% for this team,” Romnek said. “I’m competing for the guys, for the program, for the school.”
For Romnek, all these “whys” ultimately go back to faith.
“God gave me this talent to play baseball,” Romnek said. “I want to give glory to him.”
For Adkins, the greater “why” of her team plays a prominent role on gameday.
“We’ll do a prayer before the game,” Adkins said. “And we do this thing called a heartbeat clap. One person will start it, like the beat of a heart, and we pass it around until everyone’s in, and we slowly speed up, showing the unity of one team, one heartbeat, and then we’ll go out and start the game.”
According to Romnek, all the little daily disciplines carried out in practice seep into the classroom too.
“All these little things, even though you don’t see it, will make you better in the long run,” Romnek said. “Throw by throw or assignment by assignment, you’ll get better in the long run.”
Sports, school, sleep, repeat
As Romnek gets his throws in, Early is back in the pool.
“I’m always in the pool,” Early said. “I like to say I live there and that I have a bed in the back room.”
To the onlooker, it seems like the same thing over and over again. But as with Romnek, Early’s endless reps across the pool are fine-tuned for excellence.
“Pretty much everything we do in swimming is interval-based,” Early said. “You’ll have a certain amount of time where you’re trying to hit a certain pace, a certain heart rate.You’re trying to train yourself up to a certain time.”
A team and a community
Once Adkins finally makes the last basket for the day, she often finishes her evening with the team. However, expanding her social circle is a priority.
“It can be very hard to leave that group when you’re with them constantly,” Adkins said. “It’s like, ‘Oh, we just had practice, why don’t we just go eat dinner together.’ But I personally try to make it my goal to go out and be with other people because your sport isn’t your entire circle.”
For Adkins, investing socially in the team comes back to a common spiritual center.
“I run the team Bible study,” Adkins said. “We try to meet once a week. There’s almost a spiritual unity on top of our athletic unity.”
Long after the sun sets, Romnek returns to his house, where he lives with four other teammates. But Romnek says they’re more than just guys he plays baseball with.
“Discussing little things, like how marriage should play out, how we should go about living, or playing baseball, creates a strong brotherly bond,” Romnek said. “Brothers not only on the field, but everywhere else.”
