The new late start that the state of California mandated all local high schools to follow this school year has been hard for many students, teachers, and district officials, but its largest effect has been seen by the school’s sports teams and its student-athletes as the late start gives teams only a few hours of daylight to practice.

   “It’s pushing practices back … it really puts a time crunch on us,” Athletic Director Damian Gonzalez said.

   The difficulty is due to three sports — girls’ field hockey, football, and band — using the stadium as there is only so much time each day for the teams to use it.

   Football now only practices in the stadium on Mondays and prepares on the grass the other days as opposed to getting practices in the stadium every day last year.

   “It sucks because we can only practice in the stadium once per week,” senior football player Patrick Riley said.

   Girls’ golf and tennis could not move games later than 4 p.m. because of the lack of lighting for most golf courses and tennis courts, so they will miss valuable class time, even for home games. The majority of girls’ golf events begin at 3:30 p.m. while tennis matches begin at 4 p.m.

   More importantly, golf and tennis athletes without off-rolls will miss the majority of fifth period classes, if not the entire class.

   Cross country practices from 4 to 6:30 p.m. at the school and runners do not have much time for any other after-school activities during the season because all outside time goes towards completing homework. Fortunately, the Saturday meets mean those times are not affected much.

   In the gym, the girls’ freshman volleyball team has to practice at 6:30 a.m. so that the other volleyball squads don’t have to practice too late.