Mallory McDonald

a non-fiction article written for my reporting class 

Headline: The Sport of Balance
Blurb: Student Athletes must work to balance their time between school and sports to graduate successfully. New York Times reporter thinks they should be called athlete-students and the large emphasis on athletics has lessened academic excellence in colleges.
It’s finals week. Every single student is rushing around with never ending to do lists and endless cups of coffee. Sleep is rare and occurs in more nap-like two-hour sessions. The general mood is: stress. But, add practice, add games, add competition, add pressure to perform not only in the classroom, but on the field, and the stress grows exponentially.

This is the life of student athletes. They have the same basic goals, stressors, and pressures as the rest of the student population only with one major addition: a sport. Balancing proves to be a taxing, yet rewarding feat for some. Further, the NCAA reports the graduation rate of student athletes has been increasing, but others claim there is always more to the story than simply increased percentages.

Garrett Krstich, 20, a sports management and business major from San Diego, Cali., has been playing football at SMU for the past three years. Krstich says, “I have never considered quitting because I love it so much.”

Like most, Krstich finds the extra responsibility worthwhile, which leaves him with only one option: he must master another sport beside football—the sport of balance. “Outside of football, I would say school and my faith are my priorities…The biggest challenge in balancing my time is just finding the energy to get the other stuff done and put as much effort into the other things as I do football,” Krstich says.

Student athletes don’t just play their sport. Krstich also participates in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, others are involved in greek life, volunteer work and some belong to on campus organizations. But of all the different aspects of life, student athletes generally report that school work seems to be the biggest struggle.

At SMU located on the third floor of the Altshuler Learning Enhancement Center (ALEC) is the Center for Academic Development of Student Athletes (ADSA). According to its website, the ADSA is designed to meet the specific academic needs of student athletes such as personalized attention, tutoring, academic planning and disability services through a team of coordinators and learning specialists. Student athletes can meet with an academic mentor once a week and utilize specialists to improve college level reading and writing. Also at SMU, student athletes are required to complete a certain amount of study hall hours. These resources and requirements show the importance of academic excellence in student athletes at SMU.

According to 21-year-old woman’s basketball player Akil Simpson, “Contrary to what people think, we do not get special treatment. We have to do the same thing and turn in the same work at the same time or earlier as regular students. Learning how to do that was the hardest.” Simpson, a journalism major, is in her fourth and final year playing at SMU and is originally from Duncanville, Texas.

But more often than not, the struggle with school work does not stem from a lack of will, help or organization, but rather exhaustion. Zach Wood, 20, is an applied physiology and enterprise major and is in his third year of playing SMU football. While he is involved in other activities in life and enjoys friends and family, of his preferred free time he says, “All I want to do is sleep.”

Wood, like most athletes, struggles to find the time and energy to complete everything on his to do list. Yet, he still does it. “The thought of being a regular student sounds awesome. But having football and school makes you grow up a little quicker and makes you be more responsible even though it is a pain in the butt.”

Wood isn’t alone in his days of frustration, Simpson says “I have my moments when I am upset and I get discouraged, but I know basketball is the reason why I am here.”

In 2011, the NCAA reported the graduation success rate (GSR) hit an all-time high of 82 percent. Further into the study shows this information is based off eight out of 10 student athletes graduating in six years. The NCAA has been observing increased GSRs and since 1995 11,388 more student athletes have graduated. While the NCAA is encouraged by these positive increases, not all agree that student athletes are as successful or receive the same quality of education as regular students.

In his Opinionator article for The New York Times, Gary Gutting argues student athletes are a myth and should really be called “associate students” or “athlete-students.” Gutting argues that student athletes are not students first. He claims, “colleges provide under qualified athletes with advisers who point them toward easier courses and majors and offer extraordinary amounts of academic coaching and tutoring, primarily designed to keep athletes eligible to play.”

Gutting claims some college athletic programs “lower standards of academic excellence in order to increase standards of athletic excellence [and] they implicitly support the popular marginalization of the intellectual enterprise.”

But Gutting doesn’t see the full picture. At least at SMU student athletes are students first. Simply spend a day in the life of Wood, Simpson, or Krstich and their time is booked and their days are full, because they are students and athletes. While Gutting calls it “extraordinary amounts of academic coaching and tutoring,” it is simply help in proportion to the demands. The attention student athletes receive must be different and tailored because it includes more than just balancing classes. Furthermore the ALEC is open to all SMU students and provides the similar services as the ADSA, without the interweaving of athletics.

From added stress in finals weeks, stereotypes, pressure to preform, to criticism in The New York Times, what keeps student athletes committed? Love. According to Simpson, Krstich, and Wood they love what they play. Furthermore, as Wood said, the lessons learned on the field can be just as if not more pertinent than those taught in the classroom. Through juggling academics and sports, student athletes have to grow up and manage tough, sometimes conflicting, responsibilities. But as these SMU students prove, happiness and success in all areas of life can be found, if only balance is mastered.