Understanding College Athletics Through The Eyes Of College Athletes

By Timothy Jackson

The greatest life lessons I learned came to me while playing basketball at Youngstown State University.  College athletics were grueling, time consuming, physically, socially, emotionally and mentally draining.  Add academics and it was like having two full time jobs .  The lessons were through learning to address the challenges while making the most of my opportunities. Today these lessons are still applied.

 

Many people have asked me what to expect when playing college sports.  This book is a compilation of stories recorded directly from interviews with college athletes,  athletic directors, high school and college coaches, parents, high school guidance counselors, college academic advisors, trainers, strength and conditioning coaches, and on campus support staff.  These stories reflect their experiences and provide insight into the life of a student-athlete.  It is my hope this book will better prepare high school athletes for success as they pursue their dream of playing the sports they love at the collegiate level.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Timothy Jackson
• Release date: Mar 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201031169

Book preview

Chapter 1

WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A COLLEGE ATHLETE

To play a collegiate sport is not only a privilege but an honor. It is a big decision for a young adult to decide to participate in college athletics as there are many benefits and memories that come with competing athletically. A successful career as an high school athlete requires commitment, sacrifice, skill and setting goals. The rewards of an outstanding high school athletic career can become a college scholarship or an opportunity to participate in college athletics. If being a college athlete was easy, every high school athlete would do it.  

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COMMITTMENT

Becoming a college-level athlete requires a lot of practice and conditioning, which requires major commitment of time. College athletes practice or train between twenty-five and forty-five hours per week. This is time athletes could spend with friends, studying, sleeping, and traveling or on other things. On the flipside, time spent training can leave athletes feeling depleted, which may inhibit their free time with friends.  

 Participation in a sport requires strong conditioning and a healthy body. Maintaining proper nutrition, though, can undermine a host of popular social activities. Athletes may miss out on parties and other campus activities because of game and practice commitments. Athletes need plenty of rest and a healthy diet to be at peak performance. Most sports require their athletes to stay in the summers and take classes and practice with the team. College sports have become such a business that every team is looking for all the advantages they can find to win. Missing a summer vacation or spending time with friends back home is something that many college athletes forgo. The part that could be overlooked is the fact that during the summers the athletes do not get to go home or see their families as often as one would think 

In the hopes for the chance at a successful athletic career, families of athletes must spend money. Even at the lowest levels, being an athlete requires financial expenses. From paying for lessons to investing in equipment, athletes spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars per year because sports are rarely free. The cost of camps, competitions, training and club sports can add up quickly.  A large percentage of student athletes only receive partial scholarships, which means athletes and families are left to pay tuition, books, room and board, and meals. Even on full scholarships, athletes must find a way to pay for personal items such as food, travel to and from home, and recreation. Another area that must be considered if you play a competitive sport is that you will likely experience higher risks of injury. This means that you will be required to at least deal with pain daily from sore muscles and the rigors of daily training.  

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SACRIFICE

To become a college athlete at any level for any sport, sacrifices must be made. These sacrifices include, personal, social, physical and financial. To be a member of a college athletic team, it requires an individual to sacrifice many of the activities that the average student gets to experience during their college career. Being involved in a competitive sport, especially at the Division I level, demands that a person sacrifice time during the semester, vacations, and chances to go home and see their family. Young athletes must be willing to sacrifice much of what most people consider the college experience. It is important that this be known so that younger athletes will understand what they are getting themselves into before they make this life-altering decision. 

All athletes risk sacrificing their long-term physical well-being. Playing a sport can lead to pain and injuries that result from time and usage.  Accidents such as falls and collisions can lead to sprains, strains and broken bones. Most athletes accumulate minor injuries, and many more suffer from muscle pain and fatigue. Even after an athlete finishes competing, they may continue to struggle with the pain from injuries.  

The values of hard work, dedication, perseverance, and teamwork are lessons I learned from playing basketball. I was able to take what I learned from the court and apply to different areas of my life. I think that should be the goal of sports on any level. 

We play collegiately because we love our sport. The sacrifices we make and all the things that we don’t get to participate in because of our sacrifices are made better by being able to compete with people you love at a high level. So when people think you have it easy, research shows that it is not because the time a student athlete spends in class and training for sport is the equivalent of working two full time jobs. Yet, physical talent and hard work alone will not make you a success. You must be able to execute under pressure. To execute your best, you must utilize a strong mental game to your fullest potential. 

The interviews conducted reveal a list of the top strengths for success: 

• Knowing you have the skill and working toward maintaining or improving 

• Pushing yourself past the limits  

• Mentally preparing yourself before competition 

• Overcoming adversity 

• Proving you can compete 

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SETTING GOALS

Successful athletes set realistic goals. They display effort, patience, and persistence because they know the journey can sometimes be long and arduous. Anyone who wants to control their own destiny must have a relentless commitment to athletics as well as focus to compete academically. Self-doubt often comes into play. However, you must commit to the long-term goals and be willing to stay focused on those goals. Things often do not go as planned, and it takes toughness to get through the obstacles that you may encounter. Successful athletes make mistakes. However, they believe in themselves and their ability to improve. They set realistic goals, they surround themselves with the right people, and they stay the course using mental toughness. 

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CHARACTERISTICS OF SUCCESS

Here are fifteen skills, talents and characteristics that contribute to an athlete’s success. Reflect on each. Determine which you possess and create an action plan for those you find lacking: 

Self-motivation 

Dedication and determination  

Physical strength  

Physical conditioning 

Coordination 

Agility 

Focus 

Flexibility  

Positive attitude  

Athletic talent  

Intelligence  

Confidence 

Competitive drive  

Enjoyment or love of the sport  

Ability to cooperate with others  

THE REWARD OF COMMITMENT, SACRIFICE, AND SETTING GOALS

The value, need and cost of a college education continues to rise.  The reward for many high school athletes who have put in the time and effort to set yourself apart from others, made the necessary sacrifices and made getting to the participate in college athletes a reality can be a college scholarship.  An athletic scholarship is an amount of financial aid awarded to a student-athlete from the college athletic department.  All athletic scholarships are not the same nor do they offer the same amounts.  Most athletic scholarships given out are not full rides. The amount you’re offered has a lot to do with your sport and whether it is a head count or equivalency sport. 

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PARTIAL SCHOLARSHIP OFFER

The remaining sports or equivalency sports in NCAA Division I and II are where coach essentially have a pool of scholarship money that they can divide up amongst their team. While not a full ride, a partial scholarship offer can still cover a significant portion of college costs or very little. It may be that one student-athlete on a team gets a scholarship that covers tuition, while a teammate may only get offered a scholarship that covers the costs of books. 

PREFERRED WALK-ON OFFER

Not all offers come with a monetary reward. Sometimes the reward is simply a spot on the roster. A preferred walk-on offer means the coach would like you on the team but cannot (or won’t) offer any financial assistance at least for the first year. Preferred walk-ons can earn a scholarship going into their second season, but nothing is guaranteed. Some student athletes will turn down scholarship offers at smaller schools to play for a bigger program as a preferred walk-on. 

REDSHIRT SCHOLARSHIP OFFER

Typically, a redshirt athlete will have a scholarship but cannot compete for one year. They will participate in all team activities like practice, training, and receive benefits such as academic tutoring, but they will not see any playing time. However, they will get an opportunity to play four seasons in five years. Reasons for being redshirted include a coach wanting a year to physically prepare an athlete for college competition or a chance for a student athlete to recover from an injury. An academic redshirt would be a freshman who may not meet the academic eligibility requirements coming out of high school. 

For many families, the most difficult part of the recruiting process is understanding how colleges recruit, evaluate, and show interest in student-athletes. To better explain the college recruiting process, it's helpful to look at it from a coach's perspective. 

Many college coaches begin the recruiting process by contacting a large group of athletes that they think would be a good fit for their program. For bigger programs, this number can be in the hundreds or even thousands. Through evaluations, reviewing highlight video, contact with recruits, etc., they slowly start to whittle that number down until they've filled their open roster spots. In other words, the college recruiting process resembles a funnel, starting out with a lot of recruits and narrowing down to a select few. 

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DI, DII, DIII NAIA or JUCO 

College athletics is not a one size fits all.  Colleges are divided into several sectors and divisions of college sports, all representing different types of higher education. These are;  

NCAA, Division I and II (large public universities), NCAA Division III (usually small private colleges), NAIA (usually small private colleges) and NJCAA (community colleges). 

Many people believe that Division I is the only way to go, and anything less is a failure.  But each division offers a wide variety of options for athletes who want to continue their sport at the next level. 

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HISTORICAL BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES

HBCUs are Historically Black Colleges and Universities. They were created to educate students of African- American descent. Currently, there are 107 schools in the US including public and private institutions, community and four-year institutions, medical and law schools. While most HBCUs are located in the southern part of the US, there are several in the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and North. 

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IVY LEAGUE 

When looking at schools in The Ivy League (Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Yale University) the recruiting process is quite different from other Division I programs. The Ivy League does compete in Division I, but something that sets Ivy League Schools apart is the fact that they are not allowed to give athletic scholarships. But don’t stop reading here. 

The Ivy League cannot offer athletic scholarships, but this does not mean that they can’t provide financial aid. In fact, all the Ivy schools have a blind admissions/financial aid process, which benefits the student athlete in question. 

The NCAA has specific academic standards that the athletes must comply with to compete athletically. These specific requirements only exist if the athlete has met the guidelines required of them to enter college athletics. The high school course an athlete takes influences whether they can attend a particular school. In determining eligibility, a school looks at a combination of grade point average, Act/SAT scores and completion of the Clearinghouse process. Each score matters because the higher one score is, the lower the other one can be. This is known as a sliding scale for determining academic eligibility. Once you become a college athlete there are standards that must be met to maintain eligibility.  

Although universities label those who participate in athletics as student athletes, a review of the actual time spent in training would indicate that they are athletes first. On average, non-athletic college students spend ten hours less on academics per week than athletes spend on their sport. So a student who participates in athletics would be better named an Athlete-student. The majority of college athletes derive their identity from the sport or sports they play. Despite the term student-athlete, many college athletes are admitted primarily on the basis of their sports skill and not necessarily based on academic abilities. 

So, what does this mean? It means that getting a degree is a challenge but not impossible. Getting a degree is even sweeter facing the adversity faced daily.  

GETTING THERE AND STAYING THERE

There are three G’s for college athletes: good, great and gone. Which one you are depends solely on the effort you are willing to put in. I was a consistent player throughout high school and college. I was good enough to start three years varsity at a prestigious athletic school in Ohio. I was good enough to start every game at my Division I college for four years, and I was good enough to be inducted into my college Hall Of Fame. I was good enough to play in professional leagues around the world. I was not, however, good enough to play in the NBA, which requires great.  

Some players that I went against in high school and college were better skilled, better athletes, or had a better command of the game. But many came and went because they lacked a drive or love or the discipline to be good or even great and therefore, they were gone.  

Greatness is not luck or when or where you were born. It is about how hungry you are, how bad you want it, and what you are willing to sacrifice to achieve it. I had a coach, David Greer, who is currently the head coach of Wayne State University in Detroit, who always said, You might be the best player on your team, in your neighborhood or maybe even your city or state, but someone, somewhere is out-working you. Are you willing to put in the work to outwork them all? That is the difference between good and great. I was not. In fact, most players are not. 

A TYPICAL DAY IN THE LIFE OF A COLLEGE ATHLETE

A normal day for a college athlete is completely different than the life of a high school athlete. Although college is better when it's free, the difference between an athlete and a non-athlete is vast. 

You wake to a blaring alarm and you realize that you wish you had more time. Unfortunately, you don’t, and you need to get moving. You grab a protein, cereal, or granola bar because you're a college student living in a dorm room and no longer does Mommy make your eggs benedict or warm oatmeal with plump raisins. This is the only nourishment to get you through a grueling workout. It’s 5:00 AM, and the coach says if you are on time that means you are late, and if you are 10 minutes early, you are on time. There is no way you are going to be the one who makes your team run…again. So you get it to the track, pool, ice, weight room, or court.  

Some days, this workout will be a practice. Other days it is strength or conditioning, but make no mistake, it will be tough.   It’s now 7:30 and you have 8 AM class. You may or may not have time for a formal breakfast, and the bar you ate prior to your morning workout has already worn off. Your books and computer are already packed in your backpack because you knew you’d have little or no time to get to class.  

It is now 8:10, and you are really struggling to stay awake in Freshman English 101. You feel like you are taking notes and the professor is speaking in a language that you think you know, but can’t quite make out, Later you confirm that your notes make no sense, because you are falling asleep in class and now you will not be able to complete an assignment that you were not sure about anyway. 

Finally a chance to sit down for a meal. You actually have thirty-five minutes before your next class. Other than falling asleep in two different classes and not being as prepared for your math class as you should be, you feel like you are starting to figure this college thing out. 

You get prepared for math and make it through without any ordeals. Now, all classes are done for today and it’s 3:00. Weight training is in a half hour, and you have to go to see the trainer for rehab. After another grueling session,