Dear Soccer Player,

Congratulations on your decision to want to continue your soccer career after high school graduation. Do you mind me asking a question? How old are you? If you’re anything like me, you’re probably a high school freshman. You can’t even vote or drive a car yet, but you’re expected not what you want to be doing with your time 4+ years in the future. Sure, that could be scary, but don’t let it be. Soccer is the sport that you’ve most likely been playing since you were in grade school, and I know for me personally, I couldn’t imagine what my college experience would be like without it.

So, with that in mind, lets get a few things straight. I don’t know all the facts about how or why you’ve made the decision to continue your soccer career, but props to you. However, do you really know what you’re getting yourself in to?

Every school is different and similar at the same time. Unlike the typical college student, my days start no later than about 7 am (and when that does occasionally happen, words cannot describe how excited I am). My day is started one of two ways: depending on the season or what time of year it is, you can find soccer players in the weight room or out on the training field, hustling to get a few good hours of practice in before rushing off to class stupidly sweaty and in all likelihood, very sore. I go through a typical student routine, bustling my butt from class to class as I try and both make it on time, and catch everything that the professor is saying in nicely written and organized notes. Occasionally, (and I really mean occasionally as my coach in particular has been know to pop into classes on occasion and check to make sure we are there….if he caught me doing this, I would FOR SURE get and earful) amongst other students, you may catch me sleeping just a little as my day did start very early. However, it is important to note here that this is not an issue specific to just soccer players or student athletes in general, but rather a college student as a whole.

After all my classes for the day have ended is where things get really interesting. This time of each day is one of the biggest reminders of the fact that I am a student-athlete. At the completion of each day, I head to either one of two locations. Despite my best wishes, neither of these locations is my bed at my apartment, although I wish nothing more than to be able to go home and take a ridiculously long nap. Instead, I head to either our study center where I will attempt to get a few quality hours of work in, or to the training room to get treatment so that, if all goes well, I can get up the next morning pain-free and head to practice. By the time that I am done with everything, it probably around 7 PM, marking 12 hours out and about away from my apartment. At this point, I finally head home to make some dinner, do a little more studying, and head to bed.

So what’s the point of all of this? To be brutally honest how hard it is to play a sport in college, particularly soccer, and convince you not to do it?

ABSOLUTELY NOT. In fact, my decision to play college soccer was and still is one of the best decisions I’ve made so far in my life.

So why is it one of the best decisions? There are too many reasons to count.

First of all, my teammates are not just my teammates, nor are they my friends, but we're a family. They not only see you at your absolute best and worst, but are right there going through it with you and cheering you on the entire time. They are there with you through all the fitness tests, early morning practices, and injuries (should they unfortunately happen to occur). However, they are also there, standing side-by-side next to you, when you win that big game, advance to the conference tournament, or win the conference championship. To say you go through thick and thin together would be an understatement.

Second, you will learn important life skills that a person should have in order to be successful in whatever your next step of life is. Yes, playing college soccer does take up some time. Any sort of activity you are going to choose to participate in throughout your life is going to take up time. It's not the fact that time is being taken up that should be the consideration, but everything else that follows. Playing a college sport has taught me the incredible important of both proper planning and time management skills, which will only serve as a benefit as I progress forward in my profession career development.

Lastly, you will learn more about yourself as a person that you would ever begin to imagine. Playing a college sport forces you to deal with more challenges and different challenges than a person who does not play a college sport may usually face. Could a normal student face lots of challenges, too? Absolutely. Anyone who tells your otherwise is just lying to you. No matter what path you chose, there will be challenges. Things are not always going to go your way. That's part of life. College athletics has provided me with a different than normal set of challenges that has allowed me to learn about what sort of things I can use to motivate myself to work harder, or how I need to conduct myself through the completion of a task in order to be successful. Those are ideas about myself that I will use throughout the rest of my life, and I am very thankful to have gotten the opportunity to learn them.

At the end of the day, there is no right or wrong answer. As long as you make the best decision for yourself that you possibly can, no one can or SHOULD tell you you are making a mistake. Relax, have fun, and be excited for the years to come! As cliche as it sounds, they will be some of the best of your life.

Sincerely,

A College Soccer Player