College is a brand-new and scary idea for most First year students. Rising freshmen have to learn to live on their own for the very first time. This is on top of balancing schoolwork from various types of classes, most of which are structured very differently from the ones taken in high school. In addition to all of this newfound stress, athletes additionally must learn what it takes to practice and compete in the college realm of their sport(s), while still managing to do well in school.
1. Sleep
Sleep is a hot commodity for college athletes (naps are a bonus). From morning lifts, and practices if you’re really lucky, your alarm clock most likely goes off hours before the 8 a.m. squad rolls onto the quad. You’ve done a tiring workout before you attend your first class and will likely have another before the day is over. This means staying awake in classes can be a game that coffee sometimes can’t even fix.
2. Having a Social Life
While most of your other friends seem to always find time to hang or go out, you more than likely find yourself at practices, participating in various meets/games or at the library catching up on classwork. Being an athlete doesn’t make having a social life impossible, but with a jam-packed schedule revolving around your sport, balancing it can be increasingly difficult.
3. Time Management
Being a student-athlete is an automatic 20-hour per week commitment built into your schedule. Although college students typically attend less class hours compared to high schoolers, being an athlete consumes a large chunk of your free time outside of the classroom setting. Balancing schoolwork, athletics and friends who are now constantly accessible often feels like a juggling act that can only be organized through various alerts and notes on your phone.
4. Practice
Practice itself can be a new adjustment. Adjusting to a new coach and his or her high-intensity workouts in addition to weight lifting sessions can leave you feeling a certain type of soreness that all the heat therapy and ice bags in the world can’t completely fix. Simple tasks like walking up the stairs to your dorm can become tough. But your season results will be worth it.
5. Abbreviated Breaks
While most of your non-athlete friends can utilize the entirety of their breaks from school, many university teams require athletes to be on campus for extended periods of time. This means that your month off between semesters can turn into a mere 10 days. All this time at school with the vast majority of the student population MIA can leave you a little stir-crazy. (Finding a show on Netflix and crafting are musts).
6. Always Being Hungry
Although burning a multitude of calories on a daily (or semi-daily) basis gives you the flexibility to eat basically whatever, your bottomless pit of a stomach is never satisfied. However, eating a meal requires effort to walk all the way to the caf and back instead of a walk to the pantry. And keeping your energy up (crucial to sports performance) can require four or five meals a day. The unlimited caf plan is a blessing in disguise.
Although college can be a tough adjustment for first year athletes, the benefits are worth it all. Being a college athlete is a huge learning curve, and the pay-off of working at a higher caliber is a unique feeling. But most importantly, your team becomes your family. They are your support group who are more than willing to help you with any situation or problem you have. They are the ones who will spontaneously drive you to get ice cream at midnight to give you a break from working in the library or walk across campus to your dorm just to give you a hug. The reality of gaining an amazing team outweighs any struggle you will face in the transition to college as an athlete.
