Congratulations! Welcome to the wonderful world of college athletics. I can’t begin to explain how great of an honor it is to be on a college sports team. You are the lucky 7.3% that gets to continue their career in the NCAA (or wherever you ended up). I hope you’re ready for an exciting and exhausting adventure.
The first thing about being on a college sports team is the level of commitment. You may think that balancing homework and practice will be simple; it’s not. The beginning of the semester will start slow. Syllabus week is the best week of the whole semester. The teachers don’t know your name, you have next to no homework, and you’re taking mostly introductory classes, so everything you learn is probably review from high school. Do not be fooled by this! Soon the homework will pile up and you’ll find yourself sitting in the library at 3a.m. trying to finish an essay due tomorrow. If your decision brought you to a small, liberal arts college like mine did, you get about two weeks before the professor learns your name and notices when you’re not in class. This also means that your coach will know if you didn’t go to class, so I highly advise not missing class.
School comes first, always. Your coach agrees. This doesn’t mean that your coach will settle for anything less than your best every day. No, you cannot miss practice to finish an essay. You are expected to show up to practice and work your ass off every day. And why wouldn’t you want to work your hardest? Don’t you want to see the court? Don’t you want to be Freshman of the Year? So go to practice and out-work, everyone! Be so damn good they have to notice you. Take advantage of every moment you’re in the gym. Find chances to get better every day. You don’t see the court all season? No, it’s not your coach’s fault. It’s not your teammates' fault. It’s all on you. So if you want to see some action, you better work your ass off in the off-season.
Your team can be your best allies, but if you’re not careful, they can be your worst enemies. I don’t care how good you are, you respect the upperclassmen. They have done their time and worked hard to get where they are, and you are new in this program. Know your place. As the season goes on, you can earn their respect, but the key word is earn. Do not expect them to like you because you think they have to, because they don’t. However, this does not mean you have to let them push you around. Do not let them bully you. You are a part of the team and they can’t change that. Also, appreciate every second you get with the seniors. While you’re finishing your first season, they’re finishing their last. If you have a problem, ask them for advice; they’ve spent four years doing what you’re trying to figure out how to do and know a lot more than you might think. When they leave, you’ll miss them.
Having a social life is truly very hard as an in-season athlete. All of the Saturday nights that everyone ventures to the fraternity houses, you’ll be curled up in bed passed out because you had a tournament that day and holy crap are you tired! You spend so much time with your team that you forget to make other friends. Time in class is spent taking extensive notes and sometimes, struggling to stay awake. By the end of the season, you realize that every second you didn’t spend studying, you spent with your team. If I could give one piece of advice about this, it would be to try and branch out. Smile at the boy you walk by every day on your way to class. Sit by that girl who’s eating alone in the dining hall. Befriend someone you never thought you’d be friends with. You have to try to have a social life.
Ah, the off-season. You practice your last practice, you play your last game, you turn in your gear and you’re out. You finally get to go out on the weekends! You get to sleep an extra hour or two because you have an extra couple hours to do homework during the day. You can miss a class without your coach hearing about it. I can’t even begin to explain how dangerous the off-season is. Regardless of your new found freedom, you are still a collegiate athlete. All the responsibilities you felt during the season are still incredibly prevalent! You have committed your four years of college to the team and, in season or not, you can always mess that up. You still have to work out and stay in shape, now without your coach constantly breathing down your neck. You have to keep your grades up or you won’t get a second season; this means no, you can’t skip your 8a.m. because you don’t feel like getting up. You have to resist all the evils that college offers you! Please, please, please don’t mess up your potential for a couple of fun nights.
Being a college athlete is tough and it’s definitely not for everyone. The season is long and grueling. My coach always says the season is a marathon, not a sprint. You won’t get the “college experience” as everyone else does. Honestly, you’re not missing out on much. Why waste your weekends getting wasted when you have the opportunity not only to avoid the dreaded freshman fifteen but play a sport you hold near and dear to your heart? I’ll leave you with this; being a college athlete is a blessing more than a curse. Enjoy your freshman year to the fullest. Get involved in more than just your team. Join a club. Volunteer. Be more than just an athlete. And most of all, stay true to who you are.
