[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]http://www.conjsports.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/DJ-Kleinbard-Headshot.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]
@_DJ3K[/author_info] [/author]
College athletics can be quite the commitment for any student who wishes to continue their sporting careers at a higher level of competition. On top of putting the work into exhausting practices or tiring competitions every day, these athletes must attend all of their classes and maintain higher standards of grades than normal students.
This commitment is specifically emphasized when a student athlete competes at the Division III level, where the almost luxurious benefits that Division I, and even Division II athletes, receive allude these students. Division III schools offer no scholarships and, depending on the school, not many benefits on top of that. This means that Division III athletes are truly competing for the love of their sport, but they also must prioritize their education.
“We may not have gotten scholarships, but at least we were given priority scheduling, which was nice because I never had to worry about whether or not I would get into my classes,” said Chris Guglielmo, a recently graduated track athlete from the College of New Jersey. “It always gave me the flexibility to avoid conflicts with practices.”
At a Division III school such as The College of New Jersey, the members of the track and field team must put in even more of a commitment to their sport than others because their competition schedule spans two seasons, the winter and the spring, with their official practices beginning in the middle of the fall. Starting in October, they must block off hours out of their day in order to better themselves at their respective events.
It can be hard to still make grades a priority in this circumstance, especially when these athletes are considered to be officially in season for eight months out of the year. But, they manage to balance the academics with the athletics.
“Two things come to mind, taking everything day by day and never letting yourself fall too far behind,” said Guglielmo. “Taking things day by day allows you to never get too stressed about things that are upcoming in the future while never letting yourself fall too far behind means that if you have an away trip over the weekend and an assignment due on Monday, you know you need to get it done before the trip.”
This means that these athletes must make the sacrifices needed to ensure that, if they have an exam one day and a competition the day after, that they are focused on their exam knowing that they will be prepared to compete at a high level regardless the day after. It also means that getting an assignment completed prior to a trip or a big game or meet, will give these athletes the peace of mind to compete without their schoolwork haunting their thoughts throughout the process.
By keeping these two points of interest in mind, Guglielmo was able to have a successful career on the track while earning a degree in civil engineering.
It is time management tactics such as these that a student athlete must develop if they want to be successful both in competition and in the classroom, especially in the Division III setting where academics are more emphasized for these athletes.
It can be overwhelming for an athlete to keep their focus on school especially when they donating a majority of their day to something as tiring, but as long as they focus on doing their tasks in small portions, than they can find that happy balance.
“I’ve always said that being great at anything is about being good at a lot of little things,” said Guglielmo.
The hard work and time management that must be put into having a successful career as a Division II athlete can be quite challenging, especially in a sport such as track and field that consumes the majority of the year although the it greatly benefits these students in the long run, specifically when they get out of college.
“The lessons I have learned throughout my career are definitely helping me (in the professional world),” said Guglielmo. “Managing time is a vital skill to learn and being able to accurately estimate how long a task will take is important. Sometimes something may come up that you were not expecting so it is important to manage your time so that you can always squeeze surprises in.”
It is the love for the sport that fuels Division III athletes to compete for four years without scholarships or any other glorious benefits, but it is the skills that they learn along the way while balancing academics and athletics that help them stick with them for the remainder of their lives.
To those who have not experienced the grind of participating in collegiate varsity sports, it can be easy to underestimate just how much hard work these athletes put in every day especially at the benefit lacking Division III level.
“For someone who has never been an athlete in college, it is definitely hard to understand the commitment that must be put into everything that you do,” said Guglielmo. “Even for athletes themselves, it is easy to underestimate it (the work). It is so easy to think your assignments won’t take as long as they actually will and spend time on your phone or hanging out with friends. If that is the case, the work starts to pile up before you know it on top of needing to attend practice each day.”
Competing in college is challenging enough as it is, but having to compete and still hold academics at a high standard can be tough to do and definitely comes with its own set of highs and lows.
“It can feel easy to manage it all when everything when it is all going well for you, but when things start to fall apart, that is when you need to really persevere,” said Guglielmo
Either way, these student athletes have it harder than any other student on campus as well as student athletes from Division I and Division II schools, making the act of competing in collegiate sports appear to be that much more impressive for those who can do it for four years.