Playing a sport in college takes a great amount of diligence and heart no matter what level you decide to compete at. I’ve noticed that this simple statement is not so common when it comes to what ‘division’ your school is.

This is for all D3 athletes in response to the missing confidence they may have due to lack of resources and respect of helping them make it big.

If you had a pre-college experience like mine, you had a love/hate relationship with the sport you play; it drained you and often frustrated you but you wanted to be the best.

If you were like me, you were on a team or at a level that was out of your reach at a few points in time but your consistency and work ethic was noticeable at every practice and every competition.

If you were like me, you had coaches who overlooked your potential because it wasn’t D1 material and in regards to that you had to do all of the work for recruitment yourself. It did not come easy and the process was long but it was worth it.

When you think about it, the amount of goals you have has the same value at every division just as the times you have for your races or the points you make in your games has the same value. So what’s the difference you might ask?

Being a D3 athlete has leeway where your sport does not consume all of your time, there isn’t as much of a weight on your shoulders about screwing up because no one is paying you to be there, everything is high intensity but also much more laid-back.

The greatest difference of all in my perspective is that this type of athlete is kind of similar to the underdog position. They aren’t expected to come out on top, but they have just much capability to do so as any D1 or D2 athlete, so in some cases they do!

You know that feeling of pride and triumphant you get after hearing the story of a professional athlete who came up from starting at the bottom or worked through having no one believe in them? That’s the type of feeling I get when I watch my fellow D3 athletes succeed.

There are times we don’t get the recognition we deserve, some don’t take us seriously, and we often have so much more to prove than D2 or D3 athletes because deciding to pursue the sport that’s become a part of who we are did not come with a coach who was offering a scholarship for our talent.

It offered an opportunity to compete and put in work early mornings, during off season, and with people you may not necessarily get along with, but you chose this decision for the love of the sport.

Going pro? You could say that's often out of reach for us because who would’ve thought the underdog would end up being the best?

And that’s where we come in.

Present D3 athletes around the world have to prove the stereotype wrong, prove everyone wrong, come out of nowhere and make people fear what you’re able to give.