Growing up, everyone plays a sport. Your parents sign you up for bumblebee soccer, tee-ball, flag football, gymnastics, and so on and so forth. Some people take these experiences and decide that “eh, sports aren’t my thing”. But some of us decide to make sports our lives. We then spend all of our adolescent years mastering this sport with the dream that, one day, we would play at the college level.
I started my journey through athletics when I started gymnastics. I wasn’t very good and I was terrified of heights so I quit and started playing soccer. I played basketball for a few years. Then I started softball. I was hooked; I lived, breathed, and dreamed about softball. I played soccer for two years in high school, then quit so I could focus on softball. I played on travel teams that worked out 4 days a week with games all weekend. My entire life revolved around softball and my only dream in life was to be good enough to play at the college level.
Well, I just completed my first year of college softball. It was not at all like I expected it to be. It was even better. The jump from high school sports to college sports is huge because there are so many differences, for instance:
Time management becomes so important.
School becomes so much harder. There’s so much going on always. You have to factor in homework, class, practice, treatment, you have to eat at some point, and you also have meetings and study tables and so much going on! Procrastination will drive you to tears, trust me.
Sleep is a game changer!
Getting enough sleep becomes vital! There will be days when you have practice at 5a.m. but have to wake up at 3:45 a.m. in order to get treatment and be at practice on time. Staying up all night will be the death of you. Plus your body needs time to rest and time to heal. There will be days when you stay up all night writing a paper, go to class all day, then show up at practice and have to perform for 3 hours. And those will be the days that replay only in nightmares.
You’re held to a higher standard.
The team and the program come first. If you’re doing something to represent your school or your team in a bad way, your coach will punish you. Botch a play in practice and hang your head? Heck no, your coach is going to be on you so much harder until you can perfect your game under pressure. Laziness isn’t accepted. Cheating isn’t a thing. Your grades better stay up, no matter what is going on in your life.
Your sport becomes more demanding.
You have practice early in the morning, or at night when you have homework to be doing. You have a fitness test to pass and conditioning to do all year long. You have a summer workout and you have things that need to be worked on always, you are always working to get better. The sport takes over your life.
Your body takes a beating.
The practices are hard. Your body will be pushed to its limit. There will be days when you run so hard your legs shake, but you can’t take a break because you still have two hours of practice left. You will have days when you are so sore that you are trust-falling on the toilet. You will get hurt, but you have to deal with it, get treatment, and keep playing.
Mom and Dad aren’t there to babysit you.
You have to start doing it on your own. Mom and Dad can’t bring your belt to the game because you left it in the laundry room. Mom and Dad can’t force you to eat right, and go to bed early, or tell you to take an ice bath when you’re sore. You have to become responsible for yourself.
Your team is your family.
As crazy as they can be sometimes, they are your family. You are with them constantly. They become your best friends and know everything about you. They pick you up when you’re down. They become a second family since you are away from your real family. They keep you grounded and are there when you need them. They drive you nuts and can be so annoying, but you would be lost without them and you love them even when they make you want to pull your hair out.
Not everyone gets to play, only those who will help the program win, will play.
You aren’t playing high school sports anymore. Those who execute and can help the program win will play. If you aren’t doing your job, or you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing to help the team win, someone else will play. Everyone is replaceable and you have to show up at practice, ready to compete every day because no one is guaranteed a spot. It’s yours to win or lose.
Excuses are no longer acceptable.
You execute and help the team win or you don’t play. No one cares about what happened last night, or why you didn’t get enough sleep. No one wants to hear about why you didn’t go and get treatment after practice the night before so that you would be good to go for game day. Your job is to win and if there is something preventing you from doing so, it’s your job to find out how you can get back to winning.
Being a college athlete is a lot of work. It is stressful and exhausting. There will be days that you want to lay on the floor and cry because of how much you have going on at one time, but I promise that you will never regret playing a sport in college. It is one of the best experiences of your life and you gain so much. The lessons you learn, the stories to live through, the friends you make, those stay with you for the rest of your life. There is a sense of pride that comes with being a college athlete. Every day, you get to do the one thing that you love more than anything. You wear your travel gear with pride, your Facebook becomes covered in sports pictures and you share all of the write-ups. You spend hours looking at scouting reports, looking at statistics, figuring out ways to make sure you win. You give everything. And sometimes you fail, and it hurts. But when you succeed, and you fight your way back up, it is all worth it.
