In order to balance schoolwork and practice and competition time, you need to take advantage of the small breaks during the days so you're not up all night. That will then help you do your best in a meet or practice.

Getting my field experience has been a little difficult in finding a time when I can go to a school to observe. It's definitely possible because people do it all the time, but it's also a lot of work.

The week before finals is always a hard time for a lot of students, and having class until three and adding on practice and working everyday really limits how much time you have to do schoolwork, so it definitely caught up to me. Sometimes all the work gets to be so overwhelming and it's really hard to keep up with it all, especially if you want to have a social life too.

There is a balance we have to do in order to fund raises and at the same time be fiscally prudent.

We're just comfortable in our gym. This is where you practice 90 percent of the time, and it's a routine -- we get to sleep in our own beds. We never take for granted being at home.

Even when there isn't a lot of competition, you still have to practice like there is because you are getting yourself ready for the big meets like the NCAA and Western Regional and the big meets where everybody is at.