It’s 6:30 a.m., and most students are still in their beds asleep, but a dedicated few are waking up to get a workout in before morning classes.
Morning workouts, 8:30 classes, afternoon practice and a few long nights staying up trying to finish homework; this is not the schedule of a typical collegiate student. Welcome to the life of the collegiate athlete.
“I love having a busy schedule,” said lacrosse player Caryn Stone, a senior. “Otherwise I would sit around and watch TV all the time.”
A lot of athletes feel the same way about their schedules. “I like having the responsibility of juggling school and sports; it keeps me on my toes,” said soccer player Jordan Miller, a sophomore. “My grades are better during the season than in the off season. In season I am forced to get work done right away instead of doing other things which helps with time management.”
However, there are others who don’t agree. Football player Kendall Wallace, a sophomore, said, “I’d like to have a little more free time.”
While traditional students who don’t play sports may have time on most days to do school work in the afternoons after classes or on weekends, athletes are practicing during these times or when in season they are playing games at home or sometimes hundreds of miles away. But just because it’s game day and the team is on a road trip, doesn’t mean the work doesn’t have to be done.
Juggling athletic and academic schedules sometimes means that work has to get done at odd hours. “I have 2 hours between my last class and practice where I can do homework or meet with teachers. The rest of my homework I have to do after practice and at dinner,” said soccer player Molly Finch, a sophomore.
Athletes are not immune to the infamous “all-nighter,” but in addition to long hours after dark spent doing work, athletes often have to do work in uncomfortable places. “In season we have three to four hour road trips, and sometimes you have to do work on the bus or in hotels,” Finch said.
As if this wasn’t hard enough, sometimes work can’t be done on road trips. “I can’t do work on the bus, and it sucks; but sometimes I have to spend long nights in the dark room,” said swimmer and cross country runner Kate Talbot, a senior art major. “It’s frustrating when I’m away and there’s nothing I can do, but I like having a busy schedule so I just have to plan things out.”
Being in class is important to making the grade, but sometimes going on road trips means missing classes. Lacrosse player Mary Hutchins, a junior, said, “Professors are pretty understanding about what it’s like to be a student athlete.”
Not all experiences with teachers have been good though. “One teacher told me to drop their class because I had missed too many classes,” Finch said.
One of the biggest supporters a student-athlete has is his or her coach. Coaches try to do everything they can to help their players get better in their sport, as well as get their work done and get an education.
Coaches are responsible for setting a practice time that all their athletes can make. “There isn’t a perfect time to practice where everyone can make it,” said Nick Black, head baseball coach. “So I get the guys’ class schedules so I know who will be late to practice. The most important thing is the guys are here to get an education.”
Golf coach Jack Jensen said, “I try to schedule a tournament over fall break and one over spring break, and try to make sure that none of my players miss more than three meetings of any one class.”
Black, as well as Jensen and head basketball coach Tom Palombo, all said they encourage their players to not miss class outside of athletic-related absences.
“We have academic meetings every Friday to encourage our players to stay ahead,” Palombo said.
When asked about whether or not Palombo enforced mandatory study hall for his players, he responded, “I would rather communicate with my players one-on-one instead of forcing them to do work at a certain time.
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Student athletes work hard on the field, in class
Joe Overby
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October 27, 2006
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