Student-Scholar, Student-Athlete Balancing school, sport, and everything in-between

Being a collegiate athlete, most people know that there are some pretty nice perks.  These include things like free gear, scholarships, trips, etc.  However, recently there has been some controversy regarding Athletes and what exactly they deserve in return for their services on the competition floor.  What most people don’t know is that for a vast majority of schools, basketball and (to an even greater extent) football receive a lot of the benefits.  Though, this is understandable.  Realistically, these two programs, and pretty much only football here at Penn State, are the programs that make money and help fund all of the other “non revenue” sports.

Football players at Northwestern and a member of the National Championship winning team UConn have all been vocal in their opposition to the current policies regarding the NCAA.  The NCAA has strict rules, which prohibit athletes from receiving any benefits other than scholarship and room and board fees.  Football, with 85 full scholarships allowed, and basketball with 12 (basketball rosters are usually less than 15), most athletes receive a full scholarship, and all of these benefits.  However, for most other sports, the number of allowable scholarships is much less.  This means that for other sports, athletes go through similar experiences, however they are not motivated by full-paid scholarships.

The NCAA has responded this week, calling for schools to offer athletes, both scholarship and non-scholarship, free and unlimited food during their years competing.  While I will definitely welcome this gesture, because who doesn’t love free food?  It seems a little curious that those who are the most vocal of their opposition are the ones that receive full scholarships.  I know of a few athletes who receive no financial aid, yet have not complained about their treatment.  It is just an interesting thing to ponder.

This Monday, the team experienced the final practice of the 2014 NCAA gymnastics season.  This practice was the final time that the graduating seniors will practice inside the White Building, something they have been doing daily for their entire collegiate careers.  Additionally, this was also the last time that the seniors will practice at all.  With one more competition to go, their careers were coming to an end, after nearly 20 years!

However, for the underclassmen, this is hardly the “last practice”.  While it marks the end of officials, by the time the NCAA Championships are over in Ann Arbor, Michigan, all of our focus will be on the 2015 season.  These practices will be considered “optional”, though most anyone know that this type of designation does not really exist, and they are all but mandatory in the coaching staff’s eyes.

As the seniors prepare to leave gymnastics behind, the team will soon welcome an entire new freshman class, along with a new captain, and new team dynamic.  Being only a freshman myself, the yearly turnover is something I have yet to experience.  I’m sure it is going to be a little strange, as we are all going to go from practicing side-by-side with people we have grown close to, to them suddenly no longer part of the team.  However, it is all part of the experience, and each team will be special in its own right.

As the summer approaches, practices are likely to only get more intense.  Instead of going from meet preparation and fitness maintenance, the coaches decide to put us through more grueling conditioning and skill work.  Most gymnastics enjoy the summer, which is typically a time in which there are no meets, and where the focus mainly lies in trying to build upon your skill level.  It changes things up a bit, and brings some excitement into the sport that may have become a bit mundane during a long winter season.

I’ll be sad to see the seniors go, but I know that each year there will be a new team with its own character, and that each one will have its own unique strengths.

As April has suddenly crept up, it has become apparent to must students that the end of the school year is almost here.  With about a month left of classes to go, this also means that my first year as a student-athlete at Penn State is almost over!

In two weeks, the NCAA men’s gymnastics national championship team will be crowned, and the season will officially be over.  This means that all of the hard work and the countless hours spent in the gym working towards the 2014 year will have come to an end, and the quest for 2015 will begin.  Reflecting back upon the year, it is mind boggling to think that it has already gone by.  Being a freshman, everything is new and different when you first arrive on campus. I wasn’t sure what to expect, how to deal with two practices per day (one at 7 AM!), managing coursework with the work that needed to be done in the gym.  However, it seems that I have somehow managed it.

It is exciting that I will officially be entering my sophomore year, as this is the year students, and student-athletes, feel as though they have finally gotten a grasp on the college experience.  Knowing what to expect and how we work best individually will make the year that much better.  Sophomore year is also the time when the gifts start coming!  Student-athletes receive a gift for each year following their first, and sophomore year is when the varsity S jacket is given.  Who doesn’t love free things, right?

In all, though it is always funny how the end of the year happens.  We wait for months and months, and then suddenly its here, and it feels like we haven’t waited at all.  One year in Happy Valley is already in the books!

With the school year almost over, most students at Penn State are looking forward to heading home for some relaxation time or to a new place for a fancy internship or summer course.  Most athletes, however, ‘look forward’ to staying on campus for most of the summer as they conclude the regular season and enter the summer season.  For gymnasts specifically, the summer is not much of a holiday break.  With this sport, taking a few days off is pretty frowned upon, as most will tell you that they’ve probably gone only a handful of days without practicing over a number of years, not including Sundays.  (For some reason I truly do not know, Sundays have always been off limits.  I like this rule. A lot.) So as summer approaches, and students leave campus, athletes will undoubtedly stay here to train for next year.

There’s always a notion in sports that you must always be preparing for what comes next.  Never is it a good thing to dwell on past wins or losses, even if that includes an NCAA championship.  Because of this, most coaches feel that getting the summer to work with their athletes is extremely important, as it provides less distractions and much more intensity as they seek a better team for the next year.

While here over the summer, most athletes will take some summer courses, but rarely both sessions.  This means that, there are days that will consist of nothing but practice.  Being only a freshman who will be entering my sophomore year, I haven’t done this before, and I don’t really know what to expect.  From what I’ve heard, summers in State College aren’t all that bad, but nothing truly beats a summer at home.

As we approach the tail end of the school year, we are also approaching championship season for winter sports.  This is an extremely stressful, yet exciting time because major titles are on the line.  These include the B1G Ten Championships, as well as the NCAA Championships.  The first of this championship duo is the conference championship, which takes place with schools only from the B1G Ten.  There are 12 (soon to be 14!) teams in the conference, however 7 of the schools sponsor varsity men’s gymnastics.  These schools are Penn State, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio State, Illinois, Nebraska, and Minnesota.  This year, the meet will take place at The University of Nebraska, where all seven teams will compete on the same night, and a champion will be awarded.

B1G Tens, while maybe not as prestigious as the elusive NCAA championship, are still a very important and treated as a big deal.  Winners get championship rings for conference championships as well, which is always an incentive!  However, the B1G Ten is unique in that it is the only major conference in the country that has a healthy amount of schools sponsoring men’s gymnastics.  There are only 17 varsity teams, and 7 of these come from the B1G alone.

2 weeks following this championship, the NCAA championships will commence at The University of Michigan.  After being held here on campus last year, I unfortunately will not have the experience of holding the biggest meet of the year at home (championship sites have been named through 2018).  This championship is the most important, as the winner in named national champion and finishes the year with a first place ranking in the standings.  NCAAs consist of 12 qualified teams, who occupy places 1-12 in the final standings prior to the competition.  2 first sessions are held, in which 6 teams participates, and the top 3 from each of these sessions gets to compete in the finals, which are held the following day.  From the finals, a champion is named from the “Super 6” who have qualified in.

Needless to say, I am incredibly excited for my first championship season to begin, and I’m hoping good things await for Penn State!

As all of your probably know, Spring Break begins next week.  School’s out, the weather starts getting warmer, and people head home for a week of vacation time to spend with their families and friends.  Except of course, me!

Being that we are approaching the end of the regular season and will soon be entering the post season, Spring Break is definitely not a time where our coach would be willing to give us some time off.  Next week, we will be training harder than we do on a normal basis because school is out, not the other way around!  We will have two practices each day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, and will likely get next Sunday off.

Despite the negatives attributed to staying on campus during a holiday break, there are some positives, right?  Although a lot of the time we are thinking about how much we would rather be home with our families and not staying in our dorms in a ghost town, being at Penn State for the holiday breaks has actually been pretty cool.  Because there is no one on campus and not very many things to do, as establishments downtown actually close/amend their hours significantly. we are basically forced to hangout with our teammates.  While we do this on a normal basis, there is something different about being here over break that makes it more enjoyable.  Maybe its the fact that we all share equal misery from being here and not home?  But, nonetheless, it is a pretty cool aspect.

Another thing that no athlete will complain about is the per diem that we receive from the athletic department.  As the on campus eating establishments close and everyone is forced to look elsewhere for food and other necessities, we are given a significant amount of cash in order to sustain ourselves for the break.  Its pretty much the best thing ever.  So despite the negative feelings I have towards staying on campus for yet another holiday break, there are some parts that make it more bearable.

Being a Head Coach for a Division I athletic team may seem like a glamorous job, however they have so many responsibilities that many do not realize.  Most people think that they sit in their office all day why the members of their teams go to class, then come out to yell at them at practice, and go to the competitive event on the weekend.  This is not true, there is much to be done that coaching their athletes is only a small part of what they do as a whole.

Head Coaches must always be aware of where they are in their budget for the year, making sure that they don’t go over.  Also, they must schedule events with opposing teams, which is a hassle itself.  There is also media, organizing competitive events, monitoring student academic performance, and finally recruitment of future team members.

Its funny, how coaches are rarely in the moment.  It is common that they are talking about who they are trying to recruit for the next year, the year after that, and so on.  Recruiting is a huge part of the job, and one that seems extremely difficult.  As a student athlete, we love the days our head coach is out recruiting.  These days mostly come in the summer, when practices are much more relaxed, or the fall.  Sometimes they occur during the competitive season, which seem like a blessing.  Practices during the competitive season are difficult, grueling, and long.  It is common that we find ourselves in the gym for 3 to 4 hours, doing routine after routine.

When the head coach is out recruiting, it is like having a day off.  While routines are still on the agenda, the pressure and expectations do not feel as suffocating, and there is a little room to relax in an otherwise hectic time of year.

When coaches go out recruiting, they usually travel to the potential athlete’s home, where he’ll visit their gym (or other practice facility, depending on the sport).  From there, the athlete will be observed and the coach will decide whether or not to pursue this athlete further and invite them on an official recruiting trip, which is paid for by the athletic department of Penn State.  The process is a tricky one, because there are usually other schools and coaches vying for the athletes.

Recruiting days, though rare, are like a godsend to current student athletes, and are cherished each time.

Being an athlete at Penn State, there are many positive things that the University does to enhance your experience and help you succeed both academically and athletically.  One of the major ways in which this is done is through priority scheduling.

Athletes are able to schedule classes for subsequent semesters at the same time as members of the Schreyer Honors College. I am a member of Schreyer and an athlete, however my benefits are no greater than someone from either category.  This priority scheduling is extremely helpful, as it allows athletes to schedule their classes with much greater ease, as we do not have to worry about finding classes with open spots to fit into our already demanding schedule, but we can pretty much choose any class we would like.

While the pressure to quickly find spots at 12 AM along with thousands of other students is not an issue, it is still difficult to schedule classes around demanding, stiff schedules that are already in place.  Thanks to practices, athletic training appointments, tutoring, etc., much of our daily routine is already planned out even before we get to think about what classes we need or want to schedule.

Similarly, another drawback to an athlete’s scheduling of courses is that many find it difficult to load their schedules with 3 or 4 classes a day, and therefore end up taking many less credits than their peers.  While this can provide an added benefit to being less stressed, with less work overall and more time devoted to individual classes, it also means that students may need to spend an extra semester of even an extra year in order to complete all of their credits and graduate.

Lastly. many athletes opt to spend their summers at Penn State, in order to train and be ready for their next competitive season.  In doing this, many athletes also take summer courses, while others are busy at home relaxing, working, or interning.

While there are many added benefits to the apparent ease of athlete scheduling, there are also a few unavoidable drawbacks.  However, I wouldn’t change it for the world.

People who have been involved in sports at any level, know that “home field advantage” exists as a pretty powerful component to any competition or game.  In gymnastics, this is not always true, until you arrive at the NCAA.

When you are in the junior olympic levels, it is customary to travel to competitions pretty far from your home.  However, these competitions take place in convention centers, or collegiate venues, and not at someone home gym where they train.  This is usually due to a space issue, as putting on a gymnastics competition requires a much different layout than a training environment.  There are a select few gymnastics facilities that were designed with a purpose to host events, however the vast majority of competitions take place at nonspecific locations.

Due to this, I had been previously unaware of how powerful the idea of “home field advantage” could be.  In the NCAA, meets are either “home” or “away”.  There is no neutral sites, and this can have a large effect on the performance and overall outcome of the meet.  For example, Penn State Gymnastics’ fiercest rival is the University of Michigan.  Each year, both teams take turns traveling to the other so that the schedule is “home, away, home away, etc…”. Michigan is currently two time consecutive national champions, however last year Penn State hosted, and ended up beating them out.  A lot of this could be due to the atmosphere at Rec Hall giving the team a major boost.

Home field advantage is a new and interesting idea to me, however I am excited to see how it plays into the sport in my next few years here.

Many people don’t realize how important of a role the Athletic Trainers play for each athletic team in the NCAA.  Each team is required to keep at least one licensed athletic trainer on staff at all times.  This mean that during any practices, conditioning, and competitive events (home and away!) a Penn State athletic trainer must be on site.

These athletic trainers are the unspoken heroes of Penn State athletics. Usually, they arrive on campus to begin their day before 6 AM, because they must prepare all of their equipment and supplies before heading onto the field or into the gym.  This includes countless ice bags, emergency kits, stocking their case with tape, pre wrap, tape remover, and countless other items.  Additionally, athletic trainers give pre-workout treatment to any athlete that may require it.  This includes ultrasound, electro-stim therapy, heating pads, and the list goes on and on.

During the practice or sporting event, Trainers watch every movement ever athlete makes, making sure that they are safe and capable of continuing on.  After a few years on the job, they could probably take up coaching the sport they are assigned to!

Trainers also memorize all of their athletes’ medical histories and current aches and pains.  This can be a very difficult job, as it can be quite an extensive list for a single person alone.  If someone gets injured or must see the team doctor, its up to the trainer to make an appointment and attend it with the athlete.

Trainers really do it all.