How Being A Student Athlete Today Can Provides Benefits For the Future

By Katie Barrer

Our team was fortunate enough to work with two star Duck athletes who are also former Metro league athletes at Jesuit High School in Portland, OR. Doug Brenner, a freshman football player, and his junior sister, volleyball, track, and former basketball and softball star Liz Brenner, have lived a life of athletics ever since they could remember. One of the commonalities we found between Doug, Liz, and all of our featured athletes, is that balancing a life of athletics, a student life, and a social life, is no easy task. For those of us on the outside of the athletic scene, it may be easy to wonder, “Is all of it worth it?” Is putting in the strenuous hours of being a student athlete worth the exhaustion and the commitment if a student does not plan on going into their sport professionally?

According to the NCAA, only the following percentages of college athletes go into their said sport professionally:

Baseball-11.6%

Football-1.7%

Men’s Ice Hockey-1.3%

Men’s Basketball-1.2%

Men’s Soccer-1.0%

Women’s Basketball-0.9%

The statistics say it all. Unfortunately, many of our Oregon Duck athletes will never make it to the big leagues. For some, playing a sport in college is a way to even attend school, such as getting an athletic scholarship, and with that, these kids are already “living the dream”. For others, professional sports will always be their goal and their lifelong dream completed. Besides the potential to maybe someday become a professional athlete, being a student athlete does have other pros.

Research has shown that being a student athlete in college has many other positive aspects than just the special athletic amenities we see here at the U of O. The opportunity to play a sport while also being a student shapes the man or woman athlete into someone who is educated, healthy, and an overall team player, according to Web Star Recruits. Student athletes are more likely to finish college and less likely to drop out than non-athlete students. Athletes also have the advantage of registering for classes before non-athlete students and often have mandatory study hours and tutoring sessions to help boost their GPA, something not always easily accessible to non-athlete students. Lastly, going into college can be a nerve-wracking time for those who find socializing easy. Being a student athlete almost forces you to be social from the beginning and helps to establish life-long friendships and relationships.

Being a college athlete also prepares one for the real world and life after college. According to Kerry Brown of NCSA Athletic Recruiting, there are four main ways why being a college athlete can help one far along the road in life:

1. Being a student athlete provides discipline. This goes along with the crazy balancing act that student athletes have; managing a work out and practice schedule to fit in with necessary classes, tutoring, and any other social aspect of their life is not for the faint of heart. It takes commitment and the ability to recognize what is most important. Learning discipline prepares athletes for the future of a career and family life, especially when it comes to time management. Athletes will have a leg up in life when they have plans to attend their daughter’s recital, create a meeting brief, maybe take the wife out on a date, and somehow save a coworker’s work project in order to not lose a client: they have been doing it for years.
2. Financial Security. Athletes have a great opportunity to pay for a good part of their college through scholarships, something that not everyone gets to experience. With American college student debt reaching almost $1 trillion dollars, getting money to do what you love and attend school is definitely an advantage. Between getting room and board paid for and all the other amenities that come with being an athlete, like free medical care in some cases, depending on the sport at hand, an athlete can save upwards to $120,000. That is a hefty chunk of change that can be used for future life endeavors.
3. Education. According to research done by the current U.S Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, college athletes tend to have higher GPAs than the average college student. The NCAA is making requirements for being a college athlete much more rigorous when it comes to maintaining an education. Being an athlete often requires much more focus that goes beyond the classroom and beyond a college campus. Having a higher GPA means getting into better schools, potentially having better career choices, and leads to much better networking, Brown’s fourth point.
4. Career. Having the opportunity to be a student athlete allows one to work with an elite group of people many other students do not have the chance of knowing. Beyond the court or field after college, these connections can come in handy for a future career. Being an athlete requires a lot of socialization, communication skills, and team building; all traits that work well for a resume and into the real world. Employers also recognize the accomplishments that young athletes have and often take that into account when considering one for a job. In a survey of 100 CEOs, 94% had played sports and 100% said they would hire a student-athlete over a non-student athlete.

It would be difficult for a lot of us non-athlete students to stand up and say that we could do what these young men and women do everyday. Though a lot of these student athletes may never play professionally, their drive and passion for what they do should serve as an inspiration to us all. Being an athlete in college is like having a full time job on top of being a student, and takes a lot more commitment and perseverance than many of us can imagine. The benefits of being a student athlete do not only take place in the present, but also stand for a lifetime.

 

 

Works Cited

“Benefits of Being a Student Athlete in College.” Web Star Recruits. 2012. Web. 3 June 2014. <https://webstarrecruits.com/blog/2013/01/22/benefits-in-being-a-student-athlete-at-the-collegi/>.

Brown, Kerry. “4 Reasons Athletics Will Help You After College.” NCSA. 2012. http://www.ncsasports.org/blog/2012/02/29/4-reasons-athletics-will-help-you-after-college/

Manfred, Tony. “Here Are The Odds That Your Kid Becomes A Professional Athlete.” Business Insider. 2012. http://www.businessinsider.com/odds-college-athletes-become-professionals-2012-2?op=1