Class, lift ,eat, class, practice, eat, study, sleep and repeat. This is the life of a division III college athlete. Our tuition isn’t paid for playing the sport we love, and there’s no compensation for the countless hours spent in the gym. We can lose our academic scholarships if we don’t keep our grades up, and we have a harder time participating in clubs and college social life. So why do we play? Why do we spend countless hours in the gym and weight room? We play for the love of the game and for what the game has taught us, for what the game has gotten us through, for the thrill of success and learning to overcome loss and failure. Although we may complain constantly about being sore, tired and worn out. We have become pro nappers and experts on writing papers on the bus and we are excellent time managers (and procrastinators as well). During my last practice this year, my coach read out the hours we spent doing each drill and I learned that I spend days and days doing dribbling drills and shooting drills. I was shell-shocked to learn that with all the practices, open gyms, games, and scrimmages, I had spent literally months of my life in the gym.
I thought about this as I watched the 2016 Summer Olympics. I thought about how parts of my life were spent in the gym and on a basketball court, but how Olympian’s lives were their sports. These athletes spent all day, every day perfecting their sports, becoming the best of their country. Once “best in the country,” it’s more training to become best in the world. Suddenly, my small sacrifices for my sport seem almost insignificant in comparison to theirs. They get paid for their sports, sure. Their athleticism is their job and life, and it allows them to travel the world to compete. For me, playing a college sport has allowed me to make friends of a lifetime, taught me how to prioritize, and to travel the South in a bus filled with giggling friends who share the love for the same sport as I do.
As I watched, I realized that even though the Olympics and Division III basketball are completely different levels of competition, their beginnings are the same. A love for a sport, that means more to us athletes than just playing with a ball, swimming, or flipping on a bar, parents who drove us to countless practices. Then injuries that set us back and pushing through them making us mentally stronger. We learned how to win and became addicted to the adrenaline that comes with a win, learned to lose and how to turn the anger of loss into pushing ourselves to do better next time. We both have that nervous, excited, pumped feeling before we compete and the concentration and focus from the countless hours and the exhale of when it's over. We both have goals.For Olympic athletes, it’s a gold medal, and for us a conference championship. Watching my idols in many sports compete in the Olympics reminded me that all athletes have the same humble beginnings and love for their sport, for them, it’s their lives and for us, it’s a huge part of our lives.
