For most, pursuing higher education means an academically-focused college experience. But for a few Statesmen alumni, higher education means pursuing collegiate athletics and handling the pressure of balancing academics and athletics in college.
Ryan Goss, a junior on the University of Richmond National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I AA football team, said that he always puts school and football before his social life.
“[During football season], I spend around 25 hours a week lifting, practicing and watching film,” he said. “I spend about 28 hours a week in class and studying. Whatever?s left I spend sleeping or hanging out with teammates.”
George Mason University sophomore Brooke Blackwell, who competes on Mason?s NCAA Division I tennis team, calls the Statesmen community her “support system.”
Despite this support, Blackwell believes that balancing academics and sports is particularly reliant on time management.
“If you can?t manage your time, you will fail,” she said.
Despite the demands of balancing sports with school, Blackwell compares participating in college athletics to “being in a condensed sorority or fraternity.”
Goss echoed this sentiment, comparing his team membership to being “part of a family.”
“This is the greatest thing I?ve ever done for myself,” he said. “All of the good times, however, come at a price.”
This price is going extra mile to succeed, which “pays off on Saturdays, when I get to play the sport I love in front of thousands of fans,” Goss said.
Blackwell and Goss credit their high school coaches with helping them succeed in collegiate athletics. Blackwell recognized girls? tennis coach Robin Crider, who helped her understand what it meant to be a team player.
“I was no longer playing for me,” she said. “Every time I stepped on the court, I did everything in my power to succeed because I was so proud [to represent my] school.”