For a lot of students, it is hard to imagine what life would be like being a student athlete at any university. What is it like having to go to morning runs, class, and practice? What is it like having to do all that and then having to spend time on their studies? Playing sports at the college level is hard. It does not matter if the student plays at the D-1, D-2 or NAIA levels. The competition is taken up a notch and everyone is competing for a starting job on the team. Sports go on for months and take a significant chunk out of a student athlete’s life. Playing sports at the college level is like having a job. One must dedicate most of their time to their respective sport while still performing well in the class room.
Athletes that have exceptional talent on the field as well as in the class room have the opportunity to receive a scholarship for playing for the athletics program for any university (except for D-3 athletes who do not receive scholarships). Students who play sports at major universities able to receive full-ride scholarships; however and smaller schools, student athletes are lucky to even get their tuition paid at all. A recent article from Noah Sanderson on his blog site describes some “lucrative” deals student athletes receive at small universities.
“He offered two things that appealed to me: chance to play early, Scholarship. The scholarship was not a breathtaking figure, but combined with some academic "Cash Money" it was starting to look like a pretty good deal.”
Prospective students who wish to play sports small universities often have to work very hard to get scholarships and most often, the student part plays more of a role than the athlete part.
During the season for any sport, a degree of preparation goes into each and every week. Students watch game film, go through two hours of practice and wake up some mornings to run sprints at 6 A.M. For the dedicated students, there is never a dull moment in their day. They are constantly trying to stay on top of the competition in their sport as well as keeping a good GPA for the semester.
The off-season isn’t so much of an off-season for student athletes as they are constantly preparing for next season. They still wake up early in the morning to sign in to their coaches, and they replace their practices with conditioning programs.
Some students have jobs during the year to alleviate the cost of going to school but none of those jobs can compare to the job that student athletes have. While some are not able to hold strong under the pressure, others thrive and flourish in that type of setting. Student athletes who can succeed at the college level are leaders of the future.
