Perhaps no other time during the school year tests the mettle of a student-athlete more than finals week closing out the winter semester.
Athletes in the winter sports " basketball, wrestling, skiing and cheerleading " face the unique challenge of balancing practice and competition with a heavy load of study sessions and testing.
For the Douglas basketball teams, there is an extra little twist. The Tiger girls host league favorite Manogue Friday night while the boys will have to tackle the Miner boys' top-ranked squad in the region. That is followed with a rivalry matchup at home against South Tahoe Saturday and a trip to arch-rival Carson on Tuesday.
"It's a big week," Douglas girls' coach Werner Christen said. "We told the team, it's big academically and it's a big week on the court. We try to prepare as best as possible for the games, but the most important things this week happen in the classroom.
"By the time Friday rolls around, they're done with their finals and there is a big weight lifted off their shoulders. They're exhausted, but they are upbeat, just glad to have it done with and glad to get back in a normal routine."
The Northern 4A schools don't schedule any Tuesday games for finals week, instead back-loading the schedule with Friday and Saturday games.
"I went through it with my own girls and it was tough," Christen said. "It's almost like you wish there weren't any games at all so you could give them a couple days off from practice and let them take care of business. Unfortunately, we have the best team in the league coming in on Friday."
The crunch starts really settling in on the players around Tuesday and Wednesday during finals week.
"It's really stressful," said Douglas senior guard Maci Pfaffenberger. "You just have to be able to prioritize and manage your time well."
Pfaffenberger said she interns at Minden Medical Center during the season, along with taking an online college English course in addition to her course load at Douglas.
Senior forward Megan Michitarian was just wrapping up her busiest day of the week Tuesday.
"I had my two hardest classes, a study session before school, a meeting at lunch, I went to Meneley Elementary where I intern in my mom's class, I went to my job at Starbucks to help out for a little while, I went to another study session and then I came here to basketball practice," she said. "It was horrible, but it really is just a matter of staying organized and getting through it."
Michitarian said she is balancing three online college courses, English, geology and history, in addition to about 20 to 30 hours at her job and interning at her mom's school.
Christen said he tries to organize finals week to allow his player more study time.
"It's shorter days once testing starts, so we're practicing earlier in the day and they're getting home to study earlier," he said. "We try to shorten our practices a bit, get them out a half-hour early or so.
"Basketball is a hard sport to play. It happens during the holidays, it happens during finals. It's very taxing on the kids and their families. It's a constant juggling act. I had one kid who put in a 10-hour study day on Sunday. We have girls cracking open the books on the bus to our games and tournaments. It's a very dedicated group."
The Lady Tigers won the state academic championship last year for having the highest team grade point average. Three players on the team were also part of the girls' soccer academic state championship in the Fall.
"We bring that up," Christen said. "We don't bring it up a lot, but a lot of times the kids on the team from last year bring it up. It's something they were really proud of. I think they'd like to win it again. They are all so self-driven and motivated, we really don't have to get on them about keeping up in the classroom too much."
Pfaffenberger said the focus isn't so much on repeating as state champions.
"It was an honor to win it, but I don't think there is any pressure to do it again," she said. "It'd be great it we could do it again. Right now, we really just are focusing on the classroom and on the games at the end of the week. If we win it again, it would be awesome, but there really isn't pressure there to repeat."
After the long days of studying and testing, both Pfaffenberger and Michitarian said basketball serves as a big of a break.
"It's like an escape," Pfaffenberger said. "The schedule is so hectic to where you finally get to basketball and it's like you get to switch into a whole different mode. I like coming to practice."
Michitarian agreed.
"Today I had a little meltdown," she said with a laugh. "Nothing was really going right, but basketball is a place where I can take out some of my frustrations in a good way."
And, of course, the vaunted Manogue Miners await Friday night.
"We spend so much of the week focusing on finals, but in the backs of our minds we are preparing for this game," Pfaffenberger said. "It's really just about taking it one step at a time. There really is no let up during the season. You just have to keep with it."
The Douglas girls tip off Friday night at 5:15 p.m. with the boys following at 7 p.m. Saturday's tipoffs are 3:15 p.m. for the girls and 5 p.m. for the boys.
