Being a student-athlete is harder than you think. There is more to it than just the weight rooms, game day and protein shakes. First off, you have trained your whole life for this. You woke up early, ran for miles, took hits for just a few more inches and came out with bruises that were just natural for you. But, you did for the love of the game. You crushed every minute that you could, you never accepted a “bad day” you always had to have your best day and even then it was never good enough. Then, the day finally came, you got that letter, you wore that hat and you signed that signature thinking that things were going to change a little and maybe get easier. But you were wrong, in a good way…
When you walk onto campus for the first time as a student-athlete, no one really knows. Everyone around you just thinks you are the student who is too lazy to do your hair for class or that you are dripping sweat because you are nervous. But you weren’t too lazy, your practice got out 30 minutes ago and you aren’t nervous, you just sprinted to it from weights so that you weren’t late giving your professors yet another reason to hate you. Then, at the end of each class, you have that dreaded moment of giving your professors the letter telling them all the days you are going to miss, and they are either flexible and willing to work with you or they tell you to transfer into another class because they do not care if it is excused or not, you are missing class.
But you have made it through your first class, only to repeat the same situation and looks in another class. You go through it for all of your classes, always getting the same looks and always getting the same reactions from the professors. The only highlight to your classes is when another a teammate walks in. They know your situation, they know that your hair is in a bun because it is wet and that when you are missing class it isn’t because you are nursing a crucial hangover, but because you are out there busting your butt representing your school. And this is only the academic part of your life, the most important part of your life because the word student comes before the word athlete because you are a student before you are an athlete.
But after you are done with classes, you are either busting it to practice or to the weight room or to study hall because when you are not home asleep or in class, you are in those three places. You are there with your team and they understand what you are going through. The freshmen are always the ones who look like deer in headlights, the seniors are the ones who make friends with their professors because by then they know which professors to take and who to avoid.
At practice, you live a different story. Your seniors are still your all-knowing players of how the team functions and your freshman are still chasing the balls and gathering the cones, but you are a family. If one of the freshmen needs help, then there is always an upperclassman there to help. You assist each other in every way possible. When the coach says get on the line, there are all of your teammates right beside you standing on the line, too. They are there with you every step of the way. You know why you are on that line, you know that all though you are cursing your coach under your breath, that on Friday night when the lights are on, you and your teammates are shining because of your coach.
So being a student athlete is not easy. We do our own work, there isn’t someone who is there to do your schoolwork for you like Tim Riggins has the Rally Cat Girls do his. You are sitting in study hall busting it, giving your teachers no reason not to pass you. Being a student athlete is hard because you miss the parties the first week of school, but being on the field with your team is better than any party there will ever be. Being a student athlete is hard because 300s suck, but you still do them because this is all you’ve ever worked for. So yes, being a student athlete is hard, but it is great, rewarding and something only a few people can say that they are.
