People ask me "How do I have to manage being a student athlete?" During the fall, my schedule is completely crazy and full of soccer and school. Times get stressful when it seems like all due dates come together with barely any time left to finish them while having soccer games once a week then one on the weekend. In the fall, soccer become my full time job along with being a student.
I start the morning off with practice from 9-11am, then classes start at 1-4pm, along with finding time to eat and study turns to a long day. When the game during the week, especially away games can become stressful as the possibility of missing class becomes an issue. At Aquinas, our coaches always believe that school comes first as that was the reason we came to this school to further our education.
During season, I'm constantly staying in contact with my professors of my schedule for the week. Emailing back and forth of assignments that I may possibly miss if our bus time is during class. Professors are typically understanding of college athletes and their schedules but also hold us to a higher standard to complete papers, assignments, or to know the material that would be missed during lecture. Professors will respect you more when you continue to make the effort to communicate on your conflicts and questions.
I live by organizing my life into my Lilly Pulitzer agenda where I write down all the assignments, paper due dates, test dates, along with my soccer and work schedule. My agenda becomes my best friend especially at night when figuring out the next day. I don't know how some people can just remember what assignments are due when they don't write anything down.
As a commuter (I will be living at home for the year), I have tried to organize my schedule to only have classes on certain days to give the rest of the weekdays to catch up on homework. Also it will give my body take a break from the craziness.
If my body is beaten up or strained from game day or practice then I will often go visit our athletic trainer's room to do slight physical therapy, to get rolled out before and after practice, or to get taped on whatever muscle needs it (I have terrible ankles and had knee surgery December of 2015). Our athletic trainer for soccer knows many of the soccer girls really well as we basically live in the trainer's room.
Being a college athlete is a blessing as I met amazing women who have the same amount of passion to commit on playing college soccer. Playing a college sport has taught me life lessons of patience, commitment, and toughness (mentally and physically). I seriously don't know how we (student athletes) survive on most days. It's a miracle.
