Life as a Student-Athlete

 

Being an NCAA Div. 1 athlete is a mixture of being treated as royalty and a puzzle piece. There are so many good and tough things about being a student athlete. At times it can still feel like you’re being parented because there is always someone you have to report to: your hours of sleep are recorded, teachers give progress reports to your coach, and you need to ask to go home for the weekend. Being an xc/track athlete entails being in season for the entire year, having to come to school 2 weeks early and leaving at least a month late. In the fall you get up at 5 am to practice while everyone else is fast asleep, train on holidays and through important family events, miss graduation for meets, and are pushed to the limits of your body’s ability. Every mistake you make is not only a representation of yourself but of an entire team made up of your best friends and mentors. You’re banned from certain bars, you have a curfew, and breaking any of these rules results in either being kicked off the team or at least embarrassed in front of everyone.

You’re forced to make the choice between fully committing yourself to your sport or being half in and half out (training hard and partying hard). Being all in entails “missing out” but knowing that you couldn’t have done more to better yourself or your team. Being “half in, half out” entails having had both experiences but neither of them to the fullest. There are parties every weekend, and it tends to feel like the grass is greener on the other side. It’s easy to only see the good in other people’s situations and the bad in your own but sometimes all it takes is a step back from what you’re doing to appreciate it. I always admired the student-athletes who were not on any kind of scholarship and yet STILL put themselves through all these same sacrifices and commitments, as a fellow teammate who was on scholarship.

That being said college was possibly the most fun and rewarding 5 years of my life. I think it’s a process of learning your own personal balance between social, school, and sport life. You need to find your limits, how many hours of class can you have so that your not too stressed for practice and how much can you hang out with your friends while still getting enough sleep. Every resource you could possibly need is available to you and everything is planned out for you. You’re given all the tools to become the best athlete you possibly can in that time frame. All you have to do is show up at practice and take care of yourself when you’re done.  My coach would always say that his job was to get you to that start line, entailing all the hard practicing and tapering and travel to get there, but once you step on that line whatever happens next is up to you. You’re as prepared as you should be at that point and the competition is the fun part, the time to show what sacrifice and hard work you’ve put in.

Freshman and sophomore year for me were great, I had a smooth transition, got along great with the team and the personal bests were one after the other. We qualified both years for NCAA Cross Country Championships and placed 6th and 10th in the nation as a team. I also personally qualified for NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships and surprised myself with what I was capable of. Going into Junior year I thought I was somewhat invincible, turns out I was wrong. I took a ridiculous course load, tried to have more of a social life than I was able to handle and wasn’t sleeping properly. I had low iron, headaches, dizziness, and was just plane exhausted. Needless to say I ran like crap, my grades were bad and I didn’t get a personal best all season. To top off the year I didn’t qualify for NCAA Outdoor where I had easily made it the previous two years. After my Junior year I decided I really needed to regroup, I had found my limit and now I needed to make sure I learned from the mistakes I had made. Going into Senior year I put all of my awards away, medals, ribbons, whatever represented any previous success and I told myself I was starting fresh. I wanted to remind myself what I was doing it for and it definitely wasn’t for that, I did it for the feeling you get after that race where everything comes together. The feeling when you know you have done everything right and to the best of your ability and that you DESERVE to do well. I took a lighter course load and figured out with my coach that I was going to stay for a 5th year to make sure I did both school and running right, I changed my diet to make sure I was eating healthier and recovering properly, I slept 8-10 hours a night and I surrounded myself with people who made me happy. My senior year was a huge success and everything did end up coming together. I got on the Deans list for the first time in 4 years and I had a personal best in every event I ran. I qualified not only for the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships but got 12th in the country in the final. I decided at this point that I wasn’t ready to be done with track and that I wanted to be a Post-Collegiate in my 5th year.

I made some of my best friendships from my team, there is some kind of crazy bond that you form with someone who you are putting in blood, sweat and tears day in and day out. There is a huge level of desire when you toe the line ready to give that race everything you’ve got because of the respect and honor you have for that jersey on your back. I was so proud to represent Illinois and every person who wore the jersey with me. When you are suffering there is always someone there to pick you back up and tell you to keep going. My favorite quote is “Success is not measured in never having fallen but in getting up one more time than you fall”. I think it’s very important to stay grounded, no matter how good your doing it will change, and no matter how bad your doing it will also change. We need to have those plateau years or times where we just cant seem to get it together so that when things do start going right we have more of an appreciation for it. The off years give us the fight and drive to get back to where we believe we are capable of being.

Being a student athlete is tough but the benefits far outweigh the struggles. I was very fortunate to have a great collegiate experience. I have so much respect for those teammates who kept persevering through injury after injury; this takes an extreme dedication that I cant even fathom. I also have so much admiration for those who decided that this wasn’t something that made them happy anymore; they knew they didn’t have the desire to continue and leaving the group for some felt like losing family. It can be very easy to define yourself as an athlete and find a bit of an identity crisis when that part of your life is no longer there.

It is rare for a lot of student athletes to finish their four years of eligibility because it can be daunting due to illness, injury, school and the massive time commitment. Each mistake we learn from, each injury is a lesson and the harder you work the more satisfaction is felt. I hope that if your currently a student athlete that you get to make it to that last race/ game/ match of your career and are able to say  “I would do it all over again and I wouldn’t change a thing”.

Lessons I learned in College (First 4 years):

–       Family and friends are more important than anything in this world.

–       Sleep = SUCCESS

–       Chemistry and Physics don’t go well in the same semester

–       Its okay to say no, don’t put too much on your plate

–       Your bike WILL get stolen so get a crappy one

–       Just because someone isn’t in your life now doesn’t mean they didn’t help form the person you are today.

–       Listen to your gut not your head, its easy to convince yourself

–       Living simple = less to worry about

–       Don’t bike when it’s icy out…. Ouch

–       You really do need to live your life with “No Regrets”

–       Self-respect will get you a long way.

–       Your in control of your own happiness

–       Taking time down is just as important mentally as physically.

–       Don’t take yourself too serious.

–       It’s crazy what you can accomplish as long as you believe.

–       Everyone has something you can learn from.

–       Whether you race good or bad the world will go on.

–       Being quirky is a good thing.

–       The grass ISNT greener on the other side.

–       Procrastinating = more stress later

–       No matter where you go you meet great people.

–       Volunteering is good for the soul.

–       Enjoy everyday because before you know it YOUR A SENIOR.

Next Week is 5^th year/ Post-Collegiate Athlete Experience 😀