I want to spread awareness and help anyone who finds themselves in this same situation. I WAS a DI field hockey player. It has always been my dream to be where I was at, but my dream soon became a nightmare.

I transferred to another school after my freshman year of college and taking a semester off (I got sick and had to have surgery). Once I recovered, I trained and worked hard to attain the level that I was at before my illness. I was proud to be back playing and improving.

But all my progress came to a halt when I was deemed ineligible to play and travel with the team, which is one of the best parts. While everyone packed up and got on the bus, I was left behind. I missed out on trips and several games due to being ineligible. I was ineligible because of withdrawing from the spring semester when I was out having surgery and recovering. I did not earn any credits. I had told my coach all of this before I transferred; they assured me that they would work it all out and I could practice and play. I trusted them and thought all was taken care of because I practiced and played in scrimmages. I found out the hard way that this issue was not handled correctly and began working with my coaches and other athletic department staff members to get this issue resolved so I could get back on the field as soon as possible.

I filled out paperwork, wrote letters, and waited to hear back from my coach or the athletic department, just hoping for good news. One week turned into two, then it became months. It was a never-ending battle. All during this time, I would check in and keep track of the progress on my eligibility. At first, they were willing to answer all my questions and keep me updated. As time passed, the email correspondence diminished. It seemed that I was bothering people when I inquired as to my eligibility status. I then learned that my paper work had never been turned in to the NCAA for my waiver and that Athletics had been deceiving me the entire time. The NCAA never even heard of my case or situation. I thought that Athletics had been working with them when in reality that was not the case at all.

The season came to an end and I was still ineligible. It felt like I would never be cleared to play. On top of this, no one seemed to care or understand why I was so upset about all this. My own coach asked me why I cared so much as I was not going to play this year. After months of excuses of why my paperwork hadn’t been turned in to the NCAA, I started asking more questions and looking for help as to how I can get the situation resolved. When I did that, I was told not to contact anyone and let the Compliance people handle it or I would be kicked off the team. I was yelled at and threatened all because I was trying to get my eligibility situation cleared up so that I could play the game I loved. 

Things were just getting worse day-by-day. Every time I tried to meet with someone (coach, compliance, athletic director) about the situation, they would refuse. It reached the point that every time my coach called me, I knew it was going to be a negative phone call. After months of basically being harassed and put down, I went to the President of the University. I told him about the situation and how I was being treated and threatened with being kicked off the team. He told me that he would monitor the situation every step of the way. He handled it when my coach would not even help me. He was able to get my paperwork submitted and cleared within a week. I was in shock as to how fast he got this all done - the athletic department and my coach said this was a long process and dragged it out over the span of several months.

Because of all this, my passion and love for the sport has diminished. I used to be excited to step out on that field and do something that I love. Now, how can I play for someone who cannot be trusted? Who has lied to me over and over again? I know that this is a business and we all want to win, but for a coach to treat a player like this is mind blowing. We should be a priority for the coach. Our well-being should be first and foremost. Sadly, this is not the case at all.

I wanted to share my story and tell others because if this has happened to me, I can only imagine that it has happened to other student athletes and probably will continue in the future. It’s sad that my career had to end like this, but if I can create awareness and help athletes that are going through a situation, maybe I can convince them not to give up. When you give up, it allows the coach to get away with the bad behavior and treat her own athletes the way I have been treated.