BLOCKED: schedule creates difficulties for coaches, athletes

In every semester since her freshman year, senior Clare Dooley has gone to classes in the morning, followed by four days a week of sailing practice in the afternoon. But this year she is finding it increasingly difficult to make it to practices.

"We have practice Tuesday through Friday, and for the past three years I've been able to go to just about every afternoon," Dooley said. "So far this year I haven't been able to make it to practice even twice a week."

Her difficulties in getting to practice do not stem from a lack of desire, laziness, or even poor planning. It is a direct result of the new block schedule.

"It sucks," she said. "The new schedule has definitely made it difficult to go to practice everyday because the classes are scheduled between 10-4."

The sailing team practices anywhere from 1:30 to 6 p.m., making it difficult for anyone with an afternoon class to attend practice. Due to the revamping of the block schedule, some feel that it is has become nearly impossible to avoid a class in the afternoon hours.

"A lot of the upper level classes that people need for their majors are only offered in the afternoon," Dooley said.

With these scheduling problems, Dooley has not yet been able to practice with her crew. Senior Taylor Fallon, has also had difficulty attending practices, even after changing around her schedule to include classes that she had not previously intended to take.

According to Ken Legler, coach of the women's and coed sailing teams, scheduling sailing practices has always been a problem, and the new schedule has not helped the situation.

"It's kind of the same old thing. A lot of students don't want to take early classes, so the schedule is arranged to accommodate that," he said. "With a lot of the specialty classes only in the afternoon, we have a lot of people arriving at practice at different times. We can never have everybody there at the same time."



Not a unique problem

The problem of schedule conflicts is not unique to the sailing team. Coach Bill Samko and the football team have had similar difficulties arranging practice times.

"It's always been a problem," Samko said. "But it's more of a problem now."

Conflicts have forced the team to schedule practices at irregular times, including one practice from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday nights.

"The main problem stems from upper level classes and several required engineering courses that are only offered in afternoon blocks," Samko said. "One required lab for freshmen engineers meets on Tuesdays from 4 to 5:15 p.m., or 5:25 to 6:40 p.m. If football players take either of these labs, they wouldn't be able to make practice."

"What's the sense in that?" Samko said. "And it's not just athletics. Talk to the guys in drama, the guys in music, the guys in English _ if you have something to do on a Tuesday afternoon, you're stuck."

At a school where academics come first, he said, practices must be arranged around class times.

"We always demand that a player's academic life is his first priority," he said. "I don't mind having late practice, but you're kidding yourself if you think players are going to walk off the field at 9:30 at night and go study."



>What to do?

While scheduling has long been problematic for coaches at many schools, some universities have found ways around it. According to Legler, some schools, including MIT, have a two or three hour afternoon block that is "untouchable". This empty block allows every team to hold practice, and guarantees that none of the athletes will have a conflict.

Dooley said that she would support an open afternoon block.

"Athletics are not looked at very fiercely at Tufts," she said. "And I think if a block was allocated specifically for sports it might encourage athletic participation."

"A change to an open block in the afternoon does not seem too difficult," Samko said. "As there are already two open blocks on Monday and Wednesday from 11:50 a.m. to 1:05 p.m."

But, he said, the problem may not be as simple as it seems.

"This is Tufts University," he said. "You can get anything you can possibly think of here. But there's limited classroom space, and that creates scheduling conflicts. It might be much more complicated that just saying leave this block or that block open."

Legler was also hesitant to say the scheduling system should be done away with. He proposed working with the existing schedule, and finding small things that could be changed.

"I'm not a believer that if something's not good you scratch it," Legler said. "If the schedule was tweaked a little bit it might work. I think a lot of the conflicts can be worked out with more early morning classes."

Early classes might not be enough, as far as Dooley is concerned.

"I'm taking an 8 a.m. class as a senior and still have only made it to four practices," she said. "I'm not maximizing my athletic ability.