Clarke Central High School student teacher and University of Georgia cross country and track and field athlete Brooke Koblitz helps freshman Finn O’Neil on Nov. 18. Koblitz has been a student teacher for math department teacher Eric McCullough since the beginning of the school year. “I want to be a high school math teacher and a coach. I want to coach whatever high school I’m at,” Koblitz said. Photo by Julie Alpaugh.
By CHRISTINA KURIAN – Copy Editor
College athletes reflect on their experience as full time athletes as well as students and the difficulties they encountered.
College athletes play the same role as another college student, but with the addition of practicing daily, competing against other athletes, missing school, sleeping less and maintaining a healthy diet. Those additions however, are balanced with all the benefits that come with being a student athlete.
University of Georgia cross country and track and field athlete and Clarke Central High School student teacher Brooke Koblitz originally played basketball as her main sport from the age of five to 18 but eventually developed a different love, running. She joined cross country and track and field freshman year.
“Well running was conditioning, and then it became I loved it as much as basketball, and now I’m crazy like I love it. I love running,” Koblitz said. “I realized that I would have more success running in college than I would in basketball. I was able to go to a bigger Division I school to run rather than going to a smaller school to play basketball.”
UGA offers different types of support to college athletes. According to Koblitz, they spend a great deal of money for athletes whether it be food costs, travelling out of state or college funds.
“The benefits that you get as being an athlete at the school are crazy. We get free access to all home sporting events so football games, basketball games, gymdog meets, all that. We can request tutors, and they’re free so whatever classes we need them for. The amount of gear that we get, so running gear, free shoes and all that,” Koblitz said. “Yes, (we have physical therapy.) We have a team nutritionists. We have our whole sports medicine staff, the training room and a rehab facility also. And that’s just some of the other things. I just love getting to travel to different meets, and obviously, the school pays for the flights and hotels, and we get money for food, and it’s so fun.”
Koblitz believes the benefits she received from being a student-athlete played a major role and helped her succeed in many ways, such as helping her maintain good grades.
“(Tutoring) is helpful definitely in some of my harder classes that I had my freshmen and sophomore year,” Koblitz said. “Actually freshmen year, they make you go to tutoring so they assign you tutors, and you also have a mentor who just kinds of checks in with you and makes sure you’re staying on top of everything and asks you when your tests are and how your grades are.”
Having benefits, such as having tutors available, has been helpful to many college athletes. Koblitz has made the UGA SCC honor roll every semester in college so far, and believes the athletic tutors have played a role.
“I probably would honestly not (done as well). Tutors are helpful and you know, if they’ve been working for a while, they kind of know the ins and outs of whatever class they’re tutoring you in,” Koblitz said. “Plus, it’s just a time where it could be two or three times a week, where you’re sitting down for an hour, and you’re just focusing on that class so it helps even with that.”
Before becoming the Clarke Central varsity baseball coach, Trey Henson played baseball at the University of Georgia.“I love playing baseball. I played everything going up. But ultimately, it came down to my size and stature,” Henson said. Photo by Karla Dougan.
Varsity baseball coach Trey Henson played a lot of different sport before deciding on one to commit to in college. Henson realized baseball would be the most beneficial in the long run.
“I love playing baseball. I played everything going up. But ultimately, it came down to my size and stature,” Henson said. “It came down to baseball and golf, and I enjoyed the team sport over the individual sport, you know, the locker room atmosphere, those kinds of things.”
Although Henson has requested tutors before, he didn’t find them as a necessity, but having them there was a sense of comfort. He attended and played baseball for both UGA and the University of North Georgia.
“We had physical therapy. Depending on what your grades were and what classes you were in, tutoring is available for just about every class,” Henson said. “I didn’t really struggle a whole lot in college to be completely honest. There were a couple classes I did have tutoring, but tutoring is available for you. And then when it comes down to therapy, if you’re injured, you got to see the trainer. Both baseball facilities, there’s a training room on site at the field and the trainer so you get treatment whenever you need treatment.”
Even though sports scholarships has their benefits, it isn’t the only reason athletes attend college. Senior and varsity football player Anthony “Pop” Smith holds the desire to attend college regardless of a sports scholarship.
“I think I still would push myself to go to college,” Smith said. “It probably wouldn’t be the same high (Division I) college. It would probably be like a low level college, but I still would want to go to college.”
Science teacher Marius Sava was grateful for the benefits included in his cross country and track and field sports scholarship and used them accordingly, while attending Wichita State University in Kansas.
“I was very fortunate to get the scholarship. It was a full ride that included tuition, books, tutoring and also, I received a SitePen for rent and food,” Sava said. “There were courses that were more challenging than others, and as most students in college, they need extra help. I was one of them. I needed help in certain classes so I had the opportunity to meet with teacher assistants or teachers after school and sit down, do an hour or two worth of homework or school work related to that topic so we can improve and get better grades. And that was free of cost for us athletes.”
Photo Free Use of themaneater.com.
Like Koblitz, Sava believes he would not have done as well in college without the benefits that comes alongside of being a college athlete either.
“Having your school paid and having money to give for rent and buy food and so forth, was a burden off for me. Because I wouldn’t have to go work, which gives me more time to study and more time to practice,” Sava said.
The challenging part of being a college student athlete wasn’t mainly maintaining the grades, but having the time to manage it all.
“Having to balance school, and practice and competition, it’s a very Herculean task. You have to be very well managed with time. You have to know exactly what you’re going to do a week ahead,” Sava said. “You have to know what time classes are, what time you have practices, what time you’re going to dedicate for a study so having a lot of free time is not an option. You always have to be on the go, you always have to active, either with school, or practice or studying, there is no other way around.”
Senior and varsity football player Jaqua Daniels has committed to Marshall University. Daniels believes that he will be able to maintain his academics as well as his sport.
“Oh yeah, yeah (I’ll be able to balance my work) because like some colleges, they offer me, they got programs for football players and all that,” Daniels said. “I’m not going to regret it. It’s going to be beneficial.”
