While I was never the high school football player to turn to college ball, I know quite a few of teammates and people from other sports who now play for Division I programs.
Keeping up my friendship with these spectacular athletes is very difficult because of their hectic schedules. However, being friends with these athletes is all worth it in the end due to how proud they make you feel as a friend with all of their athletic accomplishments as well as what the true meanings of supporting your friends dive into when they are athletes.
1. When you ask them to hang out with you, 90% of their responses will be no.
I cannot emphasize this particular frustration enough. When I want to hang out with my friends who are Division I athletes, a majority of their responses are no. It's not necessarily because they believe I am a bad friend or just unappealing to hang out with. Often times my friends will be at their practices, games, traveling for tournaments, or they will be just way too busy trying to keep up with their studies on top of all of their other athletic responsibilities. Which in turn means finding time to hang out with these friends is quite an obstacle to hurdle with the always jammed schedule of your athlete friends. When these people say you can hang out with them, it feels like you just solved a Rubik's Cube.
2. You lose Snapstreaks very often with them.
With such a busy schedule surrounding lives of high caliber athletes, even keeping up with them on social media is very difficult. With very little time for them to socialize and relaxing, you will often see that ticking hourglass next to their name on your friends list much more often then you would for your non-athlete friends.
3. If you do happen to have a Snapstreak with one of these athletes, you will receive a lot of snaps with their eyes closed just laying down on the bed saying nothing.
Athletes do want to continue dedication to their friendships outside of their sport. However, the energy they have can be quite low due to the constant exhaustion they feel from practices, games, and school work. Whenever they do get a chance to snap you, expect a good chunk of your snaps from them to just be them laying down on a bed or couch, eyes at least partially closed, and just saying absolutely nothing. They seriously can feel THAT drained after everything they have to do is finished.
4. On Snapchat and Instagram, a majority of their posts will be them and their team, going to the gym, or a picture of their practice facility.
Whenever you do see their social media posts, you can almost be certain that their feed will consist of one of the following: The practice facility, them hanging with their team, or them working out in the gym. Division I athletes live breathe and eat their respective sports because of the excessive dedication they contribute to the game, so that will seem to be the only places they will go to in their spare time.
5. Or maybe even it will be about coffee and food.
This is also a common post to expect on an athletes social media feed. Effects surrounding the hours put in by these athletes practicing, working out, and competing in games means their bellies will need fillings very often. Often times, they need their coffee due to having no choice but having to write that paper at 2AM. Expect your athlete friends to worship their food and coffee quite to the extreme.
6. If you are really great friends with a Division I athlete, you start becoming friends with their teammates.
This is quite the unorthodox route of meeting new friends from one of your current friends. Volleyball has always been what one of my friends eats breathes and lives. Her second family is the girls on her club volleyball team she has been playing with for years. Every year from December to April, my friend has spent almost every day with the exact same group of girls practicing and playing competitive volleyball against teams from all over the nation. However, since I have become quite great friends with her, I have essentially become friends with all of the girls on her club team since they are the only new people she can introduce me to. Essentially, all she does is play volleyball and for the most part hangs out with nobody except the girls she plays volleyball with every winter. Now, I have gotten to know all of the names of the girls on her club volleyball team, where they all will be playing college volleyball, and even for a few of them, I have already memorized their birthdays. Having a friendship with an athlete can have its perks.
7. If you ever can, you will go out to see the games your friend is playing in.
Since your athlete friend usually can never hang with you, sometimes the only way to spend quality time with them is to go over and watch one of their games. Waking up early in the freezing January cold and driving 50 miles in pitch black skies just to watch a volleyball game is something most people would not think twice about doing. However, if you are a friend of an athlete, that is the little stuff you do just to support them as their friend. You won't get to hang with them much. So why not sacrifice some of your own personal time and watch them compete?
8. And you cheer for your friends like crazy whenever you watch them.
One of my beloved teammates from my high school football team has now went on to play football for Northwestern University. In his first year with the program, the Wildcats met the qualifications to play in a bowl game following a six win regular season. A few weeks after the conclusion of the last regular season week of college football, it was announced that Northwestern would have a date with The University of Pittsburgh in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium in New York City. Sure, I knew my teammate was red shirted for his freshmen year and would not play a single down in the game. Sure, I heard all over the media how Northwestern was a huge underdog and wouldn't come out of The Bronx victorious. However, I didn't care about any of those things. Instead, I had feelings of excitement seeing my man get to travel with his team for a Bowl Game. I watched the whole game from my living room couch cheering for his Wildcats like crazy (even catching him on the sidelines a couple of times throughout the game). My support for him on that December afternoon proved to be all worth it in the end. Northwestern defied the odds and pulled off a thrilling upset over the favored Panthers. While my former teammate did not play one snap in the remarkable game, I couldn't have been happier for him getting that first Postseason win under his belt.
9. If you ask them who their personal hero is, they will tell you it is either their mom or dad.
Surprised to hear me tell you Tom Brady, Derek Jeter, Michael Jordan or Lebron James is not who my athlete friends true personal hero is? Then you obviously don't know half of the stuff going on lives of the parents of Division I athletes. This goes beyond parents driving and picking them up from practices. Parents of these athletes sacrifice a lot of their own personal time and money just to watch their kids play. On occasion, this does involve parents traveling to other parts of the country all because they would not have it any other way. They feel a sense of pride and joy sacrificing that much all due to they want to keep up with the dedication their son or daughter puts in from living and breathing their sport 24/7/365. While they are at home, their parents will do so much extra for them. Having more food, doing laundry, taking care of them when they get injured, and putting up with all of the drama that comes with athletic recruiting are the extra responsibilities parents of Division I athletes unwillingly (but happily) sign up for just to show support and make the lives of their dedicated student athletes easier and less stressful on them.
10. Whenever you do hang with them, it feels rewarding to be a friend of these athletes. They are sacrificing so much just so they can be the best and you wouldn't want to stop cheering for them.
Yes I may not hang or talk with my D1 Athlete friends as much as I would like to. But I will tell you it feels very rewarding to be their friend seeing them sacrifice all they do just to be a success in the sport they love. Just seeing them accomplish high feats such as bowl game wins, high finish in the Nationals Tournament, getting all of the offers they do, practicing against upperclassmen who will eventually go pro,while still attributing themselves as a great person and keeping their grades to the same high standard as normal non-athletic students is what will make you very proud to be a friend of a Division I student-athlete. And yes, whenever you do find time to hang out with these friends, you will get food somewhere with them at one point or the other that day.
