By: Jaxie Pidgeon
On a sizzling hot Saturday in Texas, a sea of burnt orange and white comes running out of the tunnel and onto the field. The fireworks go off, the fog machine is on full blast, the band is playing and the cheerleaders are flipping. Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium has over 90,000 fans packed in. From the north end zone, Smokey the Cannon fires. It’s kickoff time!
For many high school football players, playing for a prestigious college athletic program is the dream. But only about 7% of high school athletes go on to play a varsity sport in college, according to the NCAA.
Collin Johnson, a fourth-year wide receiver at the University of Texas, said that the transition from high school to college football was hard.
“You just do things a whole different way in college. You’ve got to show up early, you’ve got to do everything full speed, and it’s exhausting,” Johnson said. “For someone who wasn’t really educated on how to do that stuff, it is hard to just get naturally.”
Nearly half a million college athletes compete in 24 sports across three NCAA divisions, according to the NCAA. Receiving an offer to play college sports is just the first step. Once they get to campus, these student-athletes have to develop a new game plan as they embark on this adventure away from home and the support of their high school environment. Discovering how to thrive on their own and striking the correct balance to succeed both on and off the field can be daunting, according to some athletes and those who work with them.
Jennifer Gerlach is an assistant professor and the school counseling program coordinator at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. She also was a college athlete at the University of Tennessee and said that the role of a student-athlete is often misunderstood.
“There are a lot of people that think that it is all glory and privilege and there is just really…a lack of understanding in terms of what student-athletes go through on a daily basis and what it takes to be a college athlete and also a student,” Gerlach said.
Gerlach said that freshmen are often struggling to adjust to a college regimen, athlete or not. Striking a healthy balance between a new and often challenging academic curriculum with burgeoning social pressures can be overwhelming.
“For student-athletes, you throw on the additional added stressors of athletic expectations…and it creates this pressure cooker of a situation where you take these developmental issues of adjusting to academics, and time management and peer pressure and boundaries…and then you add sport participation on top of it. It is just really hard to be an athlete,” Gerlach said.
Rachel Amity is the Athletes Connected coordinator at the University of Michigan. She said that most people have well-developed social networks at home, so the period of transition can be difficult when you are leaving your common stomping grounds.
“A lot of the time, people have been playing with the same people for many years, have been going to school with the same people for many years, have been living with parents and siblings and then…you get transplanted into a place where often you don’t know very many people, so you have to rebuild that social support system,” Amity said.
Matthew Bowers is an assistant professor of instruction in sport management at the University of Texas. He said that a challenge for many college athletes can be adapting to a more demanding academic environment.
“I notice some students really kind of shrink away and just almost try to hide because they are so insecure about the fact that their academic training isn’t really on par with their athletic training,” Bowers said.
Parker Coody, a second-year member of the golf team at the University of Texas, said he struggled with time management his freshman year.
“My biggest wake-up call was when my coaches were on me about my grades,” Coody said. “I knew my grades were important, but I got off to a tough start and struggled because I wasn’t sure how to balance all the school work and golf.”
Bowers said all students have the challenge of needing to become more autonomous, but the transition for athletes is more extreme.
“The biggest challenge that we see with our student-athletes is transitioning to a world where they have a really regimented schedule,” Bowers said. “(They) are more or less operating at some level almost like a professional athlete in terms of how much time and energy (they) have to commit to the things that translate to sports success.”
Bowers said that some college athletes struggle with not being the center of attention like they were in high school.
“They are oftentimes transitioning from being a bigger fish in a smaller pond to being a smaller fish in a big pond which is something that is difficult from an identity and ego standpoint,” Bowers said. “I see a lot of athletes that come in and they really struggle with it not coming so easily anymore. That can be really difficult when so much of your identity has been built around that.”
Johnson said that his father always used to tell him, “When you get to college, everyone is the Collin Johnson or better.”
“Everyone is recruited for the most part…so really everyone is good. Everyone is big, fast, strong, so what is going to separate you?” Johnson said.
Hailee Cooper, a second-year member of the golf team at the University of Texas, said the tournaments are more competitive in college than they were in high school.
“In high school we had good competition and great players playing in every event, but it is nothing compared to the level of college golf,” Cooper said. “It was clear at my first event at UT that the level of players and competition is just unmatched at the collegiate level.”
Bowers said parents can play a large role in creating and supporting a healthy transition, but he has seen the opposite also occur.
“Some parents are so overbearing that it can make it difficult, but certainly having a strong parent support system can make the transition a lot easier,” Bowers said. “For a lot of these student-athletes, coaches, support staff and academic advisers become their de facto family while they are here, which can be a good thing or it can be a lonely thing.”
Gerlach said that sometimes parents try to be too involved in their kids’ lives, which was also her experience as a collegiate rower.
“I think parents can try to relive their own lives through their kids,” Gerlach said. “At times I would think, ‘Is this for me or is this for my parents?’”
While the ultimate goal for student-athletes may be to compete beyond college, Bowers said that it is important to build an identity for yourself during college that doesn’t just revolve around the sport that you play. Fewer than 2% of NCAA student-athletes go on to be professional athletes, according to the NCAA.
“You can’t just be a football player or a swimmer or a softball player. You have to have more to your identity than that if you are going to be successful,” Bowers said.
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