Austin Nola has two finals to deal with this Monday.
That’s a fate shared by plenty of University students entering the last weekend before finals. But while many will dive into textbooks and library cubicles ahead of their tests, LSU’s junior shortstop will travel to Tuscaloosa, Ala., to try to keep the Tigers’ postseason hopes alive.
“We’ll have our hands full,” Nola said. “But I think we’ll get the job done, on the field and in the classroom.”
Nola is one of dozens of spring athletes who will spend the next week balancing tests with training. Chief among them are LSU’s baseball and softball teams, which are juggling their final grades with the prospect of postseason play.
“It’s always a tremendous challenge this time of year for the kids to balance final exams with this being the critical times for the baseball season,” said LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri.
LSU softball coach Yvette Girouard said the stress of testing falls especially heavily on the two teams that take the diamond, mostly because of the length of their seasons and the large amount of games they play.
“Softball and baseball, unquestionably, probably miss more class because we play more games,” she said. “For an athlete to have over a 3.0 GPA is phenomenal because of what we ask of them day in and day out.”
Mainieri said he tries to offset the stress of finals week by making sure his players keep themselves in a good position throughout the semester, though it’s a constant challenge.
“They have to have balance in their life, and they have to have time management, and they have to care about school,” Mainieri said. “But they also have to be able to focus on baseball… Hopefully all that preparation prepares them for this time of year.”
To combat that, both teams adhere to academic schedules. Mainieri said the Tigers maintain strict study halls on road trips, including this weekend’s trek to Tuscaloosa.
“We try to make this a habitual thing,” Mainieri said. “All year there’s emphasis on it — not just at the very end. So this weekend in Tuscaloosa we’ll have study hall.”
But that extra work can’t always stand up to the rigors of the teams’ season schedules. The Southeastern Conference softball tournament begins May 12, in the middle of finals week, which means Girouard’s players must be done with their tests by Wednesday.
“You can see the stress on their faces,” Girouard said. “They start to snap, and everybody’s a little on edge.”
Junior pitcher Brittany Mack can attest to that stress. Mack will take two tests Monday and two on Tuesday after finishing the Tigers’ series against South Carolina on Sunday afternoon.
“My freshman year was even worse. I had four exams in one day,” she said. “It takes a lot of mental toughness, just beating yourself up saying, ‘It’s just one more day. Just get through it.'”
 
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Contact David Helman at [email protected]