Balancing Academics and Athletics

Mike Rossi
Advice Piece
Professor Burby

Balancing Academics and Athletics
By: Michael A. Rossi

Balancing both academics and athletics at the college level is a lot harder than most people really think. As most individuals graduate high school, there are a select few that are lucky enough to play an athletic sport at the college level. For collegiate athletes, playing a sport began as fun and turned into a passion. If you are one of the lucky few who can take their passion to the next level, it will be a challenge to strike a balance between athletics and academics, but a worthwhile one. While entering your first year at your new college things may be very difficult at first. For all college athletes attending the school there is a mandatory meeting in the very beginning of the semester. In this meeting they will go over the guidelines of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), as well as the mandatory rules of the athletic department. They are pretty straightforward with you. If the student athletes do not have at least a 2.0 then they will be deemed unable to play their sport. Although your school’s athletic department could have the bar set at a 2.5 GPA. But either way you need to abide by these rules in order to participate in your extracurricular activity. There can be an unlimited amount of consequences due to not giving it your all in the classroom and these consequences vary from university to university. Most athletic departments have guidelines about how athletes must notify professors about athletic schedules and missed classes. It is best to give your professor your athletic schedule and the days you may miss at the beginning of the semester says. Many professors are flexible, but do not take advantage of their understanding. Make sure you turn in assignments in on time. You may want to find a friend in class so that you can get the notes from classes you have missed. “It’s important to make academics your number one priority” says Gordon Purdie, head men’s lacrosse coach at Adelphi University in Garden city New York. Many coaches throughout the NCAA will be glad to see that you have missed practice to do school work. Also most college teams assign study hall hours where the team designates a set time where they can all be together and get their schoolwork done. Sign up for a tutor if you are having difficulty in school. Remember why you came to college in the first place, to get a good education and graduate with a degree. Time management becomes a huge factor in a college athlete’s life. Compared to a regular student the athlete has more than doubled the responsibility. They need to not only worry about their school work but also need to attend practices, lifts and film sessions almost seven days a week. This is where the athlete betters himself for the sport that he or she plays. Going to the gym will increase their ability to play because they are getting stronger. Film sessions are also very important because here is where you can watch yourself on television. It’s the best way to visually see what mistakes you have made and is the best recipe in order to fix your mistakes. “It’s important as a student athlete to work on your time management skills. Life can be spent juggling priorities. Being a student athlete helps one balance both academics and athletics” says Coach Purdie. Stephen Nardi a senior hockey player at Cortland University in upstate New York has had a GPA of 4.0 every semester said, “What I learned on the ice translated directly to the classroom. I was constantly making connections between the team work, motivation, and dedication I needed for hockey to my work and experiences in the classroom.” We can all understand that most people would rather be competing all the time and playing sports because it is a lot of fun. But there comes a time when you need to hunker down and get your school work done. A major distraction that prevents teenagers from completing work is their cell phones. Turn them off or place them somewhere out of your reach because if every second your phone is ringing you are not learning anything. Some people can work better in their dorm room while others like to work in the library. So figure out which is the best place for you to get your work done and do it there. The worst possible thing that a college athlete can do is use all of their down time on their social life. Athletes have very limited free time when they’re either not at class or a function for their sport, so they need to find a balance on when they can go out, or when they just need to say no and get their school work done. Some people can get away with a 4.0 and not have to study at all, while others need to study two hours a day just to be eligible to participate. Once again, everybody is different so in order to succeed you need to do what is best for you. Stephen Nardi continues to do well at both his sport as well as in the classroom. What seems to help him the most is that he has very good self-respect. He has very high goals and does not want to let himself down. He knows what his priorities are and doesn’t put anything in front of his academics.

SIDEBAR
“I particularly enjoy working with athletes, who know very well the importance of managing time in being successful both on the field and off. These students have been working with restrictive schedules for most of their academic careers, and this has helped them develop a sense of priority and knowledge of how to break things down into manageable bits. You don't go straight from an intense workout onto the practice field. You're depleted, tired, and not ready to improve. First get stronger, and then get better. The same applies to academic work. Try to swallow it in one gulp, and you'll get a worse outcome than doing what needs to be done when it needs to be done over a longer period of time. It just works out better that way” says Learning Center Director Matthew Lavery.
Quick Tips: Here are some tips that can be very helpful to anybody attending college to play a sport.
Go to every class; don’t miss any class unless you really have to.
If you’re starting to have trouble in class, tell your coach. He can help you get a tutor and the right counseling you need to succeed.
Remember which comes first in the term Student Athlete. It’s like that for a reason.
Work hard and never give up.

Contacts
Gordon Purdie- 516-662-2299

Learning Center
Matthew Lavery, Director
Earle Hall, Lower Level p - 516.877.3200

Stephen Nardi- 516-528-0274