Leslie Arietta

“It’s about pride; in ourselves, in our school. It’s about our love and passion for the game. And when it’s all over; when we walk off that court or field for the last time, our hearts crumble. Those tears are real. But deep down inside, we are very proud of ourselves. We will forever be what few can call ourselves…. Student Athletes.” – Quotesgram.

Being a student athlete is a life challenge. You have to be willing to stay self-disciplined and spend majority of your summer preparing for preseason not just for yourself, but for your team. You might just regret it if you are not in shape before preseason. My sport is soccer, which is during the fall so you have to be prepared to arrive two weeks early before the fall semester begins for preseason or “hell week” as athletes like to call it. During preseason my life is eat, sleep, and soccer. Sometimes I forget what a social life is during the time because my life is revolved around soccer for those two weeks until school is in session.

There is more to a student athlete than just winning the championship game or going professional. We are students before we are athletes. We choose to go to college because we want a degree. We want to be prepared for the future and learn how to excel on the field and in the classroom. We could never be athletes if we did not succeed in the classroom. We are no different than any student — we are all here for the same reason, but we have a passion for the sport we play and cannot let go of it yet. Sometimes being an athlete is our motivation for being a student. Without the grades we could not even step foot on the field or the court. Some people believe we get it easy in the classroom and get excused for missed assignments or tests, but in reality we have to work for our grades just like everyone else attending the university.

Five tips that have made me a successful student athlete many should follow: 1.) Introduce yourself to the professor at the beginning of the semester. 2.) Always sit in the first two rows of the classroom so you do not get distracted. 3.) Notify your teachers ahead of time when you will be away so you can complete any assignments you will be missing. 4.) Attend your study hours. 5.) Remember that being a student always comes before being an athlete.

Student athletes spend the majority of their time on the bus traveling. Sometimes the bus is our classroom, bedroom, and sometimes film room.  The bus is an athlete’s mobile home because we travel with our school work and bring our pillows and blanket for the long ride. If athletes are not studying on the bus we are usually sleeping or getting prepared for our game. We spend late nights on the bus and sometimes multiple days to get to our destination.

There are benefits of being a student athlete, but we are never handed anything without working for it. We earn our success on the field and in the classroom but there is always room for improvement. Being a student athlete has been a challenge, but at the end of the day we do it for the life lessons, the experience, and for our fans. We focus in the classrooms to get our degrees and we focus on the field to get our championship. This is what it takes to be a student-athlete and at the end of the day, it is all worth it.