The truth on being a female student athlete…
No matter the sport, no matter the division you play, being a collegiate female student athlete may be one of the hardest, most rewarding experiences any women could ever encounter. An athletic team is no sorority. Yes, we all become best friends. Yes, we become a family and consider each other sisters. Yes, we will be life-long friends. But being a female student athlete is so much more. We cheer, cry, bleed, lose, and most importantly win together. There is no greater bond then the bond between teammates, who are truly your best friends.
- A 6 a.m. practice, isn’t just waking up a 6 a.m.
Every single athlete must go through the dreaded 6 a.m. practice at some point in their career. The thing is, a 6 a.m. practice isn’t just a roll-out-of-bed-and-slowly-get-ready-for-the-day type of process. You have to rush to the locker room, be on the field at 6, stretched, awake, and ready to go. In order for this to happen, your ass needs to be getting out of bed at 5, changed into your practice uniform, had your team stretch, and gotten some form of food in your belly before the practice starts. If not, your tired ass that took too long to roll out of bed, will find itself on the line and ready to run, joined by 20 other girls who will not be happy with your tardiness. - We are ALWAYS hungry.
Seriously, we see food, we eat the food, and fast. Yes, supposedly there are three meals during the day; breakfast, lunch and dinner. However, what most people don’t realize, is that as an athlete we have something called pre-breakfast, breakfast, post-breakfast, pre-lunch, lunch, and so on. Creating a grand total of 9 full meals a day, and of course multiple snacks in between.
- You get to see the REAL side of everyone….
You wouldn’t be playing a sport in college if you weren’t a competitive, which means… You get to see the inner bitch inside all of your teammates. No matter how nice, how sweet someone may be, the minute you walk onto the field, the REAL side comes out. There is no time for “being fake” on the field. If you aren’t giving 100%, you’re damn right that someone will call you out on it. If you think you can’t, you better change your attitude to you think you can. If you don’t want to, you better start wanting because no one will sympathize for you. But the minute another team pushes you, if you fall, every single one of your teammates will run to your side to pick you up. We may be competitive assholes that need to win, but we have each others backs no matter what.
- Everyone warns you about the physical toll that being an athlete has on your body, but no one warns you about the mental toll.
Yes, running until you puke, and lifting until every muscle in our body is so sore it hurts to touch, the physical aspect of being an athlete is rough. But the mental aspect is even worse. From being the best in high school, to becoming a small little freshman, with freshman duties and no say on the team, is a very humbling experience. You work your ass off everyday at practice, and may not get to play on the field for a single second. This isn’t high school, not everyone gets to play. You don’t get to decide what days you want to “take off” because as a college athlete, there are no off days. Every single day is a new mind game, and you have to figure out how to overcome it.
- The balance between being a “student” and an “athlete.”
We are called “student athletes” for a reason. As much as we think school gets in the way of our athletics, at the end of the day we are going to a University or College for an education. The difficult part of this concept is being able to turn off that “athlete” mindset when you’re in the classroom, and trying to get into the “student” mode.
- We go through 4, (sometimes 5,) years of no sleep.
Sleep is needed, but scarce. Our body needs the rest, but there is no time for rest. So the class, long bus rides and multiple naps is when sleep is recovered.
- Bonding on the bus.
As much as we like to tell our professors we are going to do all the homework and schoolwork we are missing in class on the bus, we don’t. First off, we sleep, a lot. It’s our time to catch-up on much needed brain-fuel. Second, when everyone gets up and is alive again, is when the games start. We braid hair, gossip, play catch phrase, and record ourselves singing karaoke with the poor bus speaker. The bus is where we bond.
- We screw up each other’s cycles.
When you spend countless hours with the same girls for multiple hours out of the day, things get a little screwy. We eat, sleep, work out, travel, and live in the same dorms; it was only bound to happen. Thank you mother nature…
- Embrace your athletic body.
As a female athlete, we see someone’s skinny frame and instantly get jealous. Why don’t I look like that? How did she get that body? However, when we finally float back down to reality, we realize that these girls don't need to have our figure, and we don't need to have theirs. Can these girls clean 150 pounds? Can they back squat over 200? The answer is no, and there's nothing wrong with that. One of the hardest parts of being a female athlete is not comparing yourself to the stick-figure that pops up on your screen every time you check social media. These girl’s don’t need to be strong enough to stop a 200 pound girl running down the field, or have legs that are strong enough to jump multiple feet in the air. We may not have the “model” body figure, but our athletic figures can kick anyone’s ass. - A letter to coach.
On a team, there is this idea of being a “family unit.” All of us girls play the roll of being sisters, while coaches, you get the lucky job of being our honorary parents. Believe it or not, not matter how annoyed, mad or happy we are with our coaches, we put in 100% every single day because we want to make YOU proud, just like we would for our parents. Coaches may yell, swear, force us to run our guts out, however, our coaches are our biggest cheerleaders. When we succeed, when we win, when we give it our all, our coaches will be by our side no matter what, and cheer their hearts out for us.
- Your team is your family.
We are family. We bleed, bitch, cry, cheer, lose, win, and love each other. We would do anything for one another. We tell each other our deepest and darkest secrets, stand-up for each other, and love each other unconditionally. Being a female athlete is, and will always be, one of the greatest decisions we will ever make.
