By Nick Vaughn
Sports Editor
Times are difficult in the life of a college athlete.
Dealing with the long practice hours, games through each semester, getting all your class work in on time, if not early and not to mention maintaining a certain grade point average on top of everything else makes life a in college a real challenge.
Unlike other students on campus, student athletes don’t have the choice to just skip class when they don’t feel like going, they don’t have the option not to turn in work just because they did not know it was due and certainly do not have the okay to just drop a class because things are too hard or because they fell to far behind. In fact, by no means can they do that at all. Dropping a class or skipping is totally out of the question and there will be consequences for the ones that do so. With that in the back of their mind athletes make sure not to skip a class or not turn in an assignment.
The players have a lot on their plate when it comes to their sport, and the class work can be daunting, especially for the ones that look to play at the next level, like a D1 or D2 university. The coaches there will look at their grades to see how well they do and what type of person that player is, and if the grades meet the requirements that each school has for admission.
All of this at times can be a bit much for the players, having to not only do the work for that week but they might do extra work for the next week to get ahead in the class. . Which can be straining on the body, because it goes without saying that everyone needs rest and a certain amount at that to function at 100%.
All in all the type of schedule an athlete goes through is for sure a lot. When you take in account all the countless hours of mandatory study hall, independent studying, class time, practice time, and all the games through the season, and that is not to include if that certain team gets into the playoff and makes a deep run which is normally the case here at TJC given that we have 51 and counting national championships throughout all the sports that we offer here. Things can get a bit out of control if one allows it to and is not on top of his/her work.
