Student or Athlete?

Have you ever been walking around campus and seen a football player and suddenly got excited? That feeling you get if you have ever passed by Saquon Barkley while walking through the HUB. Has it ever occurred to you that we feel this way because we only think of these people in a single dimension? When we watch such players on the field and on the court, we see them as athletes. Walking around campus they are the same, and if one is in your class it is something to brag to your friends about. But, these athletes have another job to perform as well; which is to pass class and graduate just as everyone else on campuses around the nation plan to do. The route taken by them, however, is slightly different than ours.
Defining a student-athlete is the challenge of this post. Where is the line drawn? How much time should be spent focusing on academics? On athletics? Do they think of themselves more as an athlete or student? Typical students across universities tend to want to believe that these athletes have an easier time than most. While, some colleges have been at the center of investigations for putting athletes through fake classes or courses designed to give them A’s, this is not always the case. Players of different sports have differing schedules, but one thing that remains constant across the board is a lack of free time. Summers are typically cut short, early mornings are a given, packed days are assured, and late nights of homework are guaranteed. Sadly, even with this work, these young adults are still treated as solely athletes. In 2014, two former University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill student-athletes filed a lawsuit saying that they were deprived of a “meaningful education”. This comes off the fact that they were spending, on average, about 40 hours a week training. I understand that a large part of the profit a school pulls in is through its athletics. Also, that successful sports programs make alumni relations much smoother. Yet, these “students” should not held merciless under the iron fist of their Athletic Director. It is not like they get paid anyways! Therefore it does not surprise me that college football players graduate at a rate around 18% less than other male students.
Coaches and directors need to understand that they are not coaching every player to become a star professional athlete, or even a pro athlete at the least. Most student-athletes never even make it to the professional leagues. So what they need to do is start coaching them to be successful people, on AND off the court. Make sure that they know that academics are just as important, if not more, than athletics. It will set them up to be successful in the future; so finding the correct balance between school and sports is key. Do you think that colleges make student-athletes focus too much on athletics or do they split their time evenly?

http://www.politifact.com/virginia/statements/2014/dec/30/jim-moran/moran-says-college-football-players-have-low-gradu/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/uloop/the-life-of-a-student-ath_b_2963409.htmlhttp://www.businessinsider.com/college-student-athletes-spend-40-hours-a-week-practicing-2015-1

1 Comment on "Student or Athlete?"

  1. I have a lot of respect for student-athletes. It amazes me that they manage to finish their classwork while also putting in copious amount of training hours, when I can barely manage to just get my homework done. I think it’s definitely true that we forget that these athletes are students here too. They are our peers and are more than just athletes. I think that it is very difficult for a student-athlete to take challenging courses and be successful simply because of lack of time. This seems wrong to me because that’s the main reason that these students are here: to receive an education. Education should always take priority over sports because at the end of the day, they’re just games.

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