The perfect situation for Eastern’s head baseball coach Jim Schmitz would be for his players to be finished with class by noon, have lunch and rest before practice begins.

Unfortunately, this situation rarely occurs for Schmitz. The same is true for other Eastern athletic programs.

Cindy Tozer, director of academic services for athletics, said one of the biggest problems in scheduling classes for athletes is some departments offer only afternoon classes. Science classes with labs are especially difficult to schedule because an athlete might have two, two-to-three-hour labs each week.

The perfect scenario for Schmitz would be for all 33 members of the baseball team to have academics out of the way before lunch.

He said, however, once his players are registering for junior and senior level courses, it gets more difficult to balance time for class and practice.

Schmitz said baseball is one of the hardest spring sports to schedule classes around. The team does not travel or have games scheduled on Tuesdays or Thursdays, but there is an evening practice both of those days. Monday is the only off day for the baseball team.

Senior pitcher Chris Vaculik said Mondays are a good day for baseball players to schedule a night class if necessary.

One of the primary reasons Schmitz said he prefers his players to have morning classes is so practice can begin at 2 p.m.

A later start time for practice means players and coaches will not be home until 7 p.m. or later.

Schmitz said he has noticed more class conflicts in the past two or three years, and the conflicts are not just with the juniors and seniors.

He wishes for more sections available for classes.

“We like priority registration that athletes have, but there are still struggles to get an a.m. class,” Schmitz said.

Despite struggles, Tozer said priority registration is a benefit for athletes because there is a better chance for them to get into the sections of classes they need.

Schmitz said a key to scheduling classes for athletes is for them to get in and see their advisers right away. This helps both athletes and advisers plan ahead.

Every year, Schmitz said he compiles the conflict list between classes and practice, and the number of conflicts is surprising. He said sometimes the conflict list is half actual class conflicts and half players not wanting an 8 a.m. class.

Tozer said she sides with the coach on the issue of wanting athletes to take early classes.

“If it’s (class) scheduled at two or eight, I tell them they need to take the eight o’clock,” Tozer said.

However, athletes want early classes, Tozer said, so they can be done and have time to rest or study.

One method at scheduling classes is to take harder courses during the offseason.

Vaculik said it is important to know which classes will be harder and get them out of the way when not in season.

Vaculik said baseball season is a combination of several early classes followed by many late nights of practice. He said it is especially difficult to have early classes on Monday mornings because the team may not return from an away series until 2 a.m. that day.

Sophomore volleyball player Lauren Sopcic said she has overloaded during offseason semesters, taking more than 15 credit hours. Her method for scheduling classes during volleyball season mirrors Vaculik’s approach of taking easier classes.

“I will take a gen. ed instead of say, organic chemistry,” Sopcic said of her in-season class schedule.

Sopcic said scheduling classes for the upcoming Fall semester has been difficult. After four separate meetings with her adviser to arrange and rearrange her schedule, she will still miss a half of two practices. This is significant, Sopcic said, because the volleyball team only has four practices per week.

Sopcic said that the strain of classes during the morning and practice in the afternoon is sometimes tiring, but it’s what she expects being a student-athlete.

“I’m accustomed to being busy,” she said. “I kind of like it.”