Imagine this: wake up at 4:45 a.m, go to the training room, then practice at 6 a.m, grab an energy bar, go to a 9 a.m. class, study for that next test, go to the weight room at 2 p.m, go to an afternoon team practice, go to your next class, do your homework, try to find time to eat, workout and go to an evening practice. This is an average day in the life of a student athlete playing at the collegiate level.
Kerri Snipes, a former Northwood women’s basketball player, attended Belmont Abbey College from 2013-2016 to continue her basketball career.
“One day I had a presentation in a business class, followed by a test in my next class,” Snipes said. “Once class was over, [I had to] rush to the gym to do a shoot around/walk through in preparation for a game, then rush back to my last class, and then to the cafeteria immediately after to eat with my team for our pregame meal and finally loading my bags and hopping on the bus for an away game.”
Snipes believes that college athletes face many challenges when trying to balance academics and sports at the same time.
“I would say one of the restrictions you face as a student-athlete is a limited amount of free time,” Snipes said. “You don’t have the luxury to do whatever you want whenever you want. You have to be able to manage your time wisely because a majority of your time is either on the court, in the weight room, in study hall or doing team activities, so you have to make the most of the little amount of free time you have.”
Snipes said that time is a resource to be used wisely, especially when faced with the demanding task of being a college athlete.
Much like Snipes, Riann Daziel, former women’s lacrosse player at the University of Mount Olive who graduated in 2016, struggled with the demanding schedule being a student athlete brings.
“When I was in season, I had no social life besides with my teammates,” Daziel said. “I was with them from early conditioning, mid-day lifts and then practice on the evenings every day. Almost every weekend had games or practices.”
In the midst of being a college athlete and a student, it can sometimes feel unbearable, and some say they have thoughts about giving up because of the pressure and stress it can bring.
“What motivated me was the feeling of winning,” Daziel said, “I can be wicked competitive and knowing that my team could win made me work harder and harder every day because I wanted to win. There were points in time where I did want to give up, but those would just be on an off day and I would just remind myself why I’m playing, which was to be successful and work for it.”
Matt Oldham is a current Northwood baseball player who will attend a university in the coming fall to further pursue his baseball career. Oldham believes that life is going to change once he enters the next level of college baseball.
“As far as the routine and amount of practice and homework that goes into being a collegiate athlete, it will only intensify,” Oldham said. “I have a very similar workout program and somewhat educational program; they will just get harder.”
Ciera Dixon, current Northwood guidance counselor and former women’s basketball player at Queen’s University, believes playing college sports takes more than most expect.
“Not everyone is cut out to be a student-athlete.” Dixon said. “Just because everyone doesn’t want to put all the work in that’s required to play at the college level.”
According to The New York Times, 15 percent of student athletes end up quitting due to the amount of stress and pressure being a collegiate athlete can cause. This happened to be the case for Jay Williams. Williams played football at Northwood and went on to play at North Carolina Wesleyan College, where he decided to take a break from his football career.
“At the time, my love for the game was gone. I was trying to focus more on my education and I felt football was getting in the way of that,” Williams said. “My grandmother had been diagnosed with breast cancer during the season and my mom was just coming off of a knee replacement surgery. On the other hand, my family really needed me. Everything ended up working out; my grandmother is cancer free, my mom is walking again and I am getting back on the football field in January.”
From personal experience, Dixon knows that certain qualities must be met to play a college sport and that the life of a student athlete is much more complex than most realize.
“You should be relentless and no should never be an answer,” Dixon said. “I think that whatever you’re working toward, whether it is to break a school record or be the first in your school to become a Division I athlete, you have to be relentless in that goal and never be satisfied in how you played the game before and just constantly push yourself.”
– By Julia Wieland
