Students Make Tough Decisions to Play Sports

By Jennifer Jarvis

College is all about decisions. First, students must decide what school to attend. Next, is the difficult task of choosing a major. Students must decide whether to work, take out loans, or both. Every year students decide where to live, every semester they decide what classes to take, and every day how much time to study.

College athletes, like Kyle Robinson, have the difficult task of making these decisions along with several others that come with being a student athlete. A major decision that keeps students from playing sports is the matter of having a job. Robinson, a junior at MU, began swimming when she was twelve, but recently retired from MU's swim team because of her concerns surrounding work.

"It's almost not possible to work and play sports. [Swimming] is your job," Robinson said.

The decision whether or not to work is a complex one. For many student athletes at MU, working is not a decision but a necessity. Despite the general perception of student athletes receiving free education in return for their athletic endeavors, this is often not the case. Of the 474 student athletes at MU, only 193 have full scholarships. Even with full scholarships, which cover tuition, books, and room and board, the athletes sometimes run into financial problems. The student athletes still have to find resources to pay for personal expenses. The majority of MU student athletes do not have this luxury and either receive partial scholarships, or no scholarship at all. Partial scholarships range from $200 to several thousand dollars. Currently, there are 166 student athletes receiving partial scholarships and 115 who receive no financial aid from the athletic department. Student athletes can also supplement their athletic financial aid with need-based grants, loans and academic scholarships.

Just like all NCAA schools, MU offers two types of athletic scholarships. One type is offered for headcount sports. For these sports coaches are designated a certain number of athletes they are allowed to award scholarships to. The scholarships can range anywhere from full scholarships to a couple hundred dollars. Regardless of the amount, they are only given to the designated number of players. Headcount sports include football, men's and women's basketball, gymnastics, tennis and volleyball.

Equivalency sports are allowed to give scholarships to any number of players in any amount the coach decides. However, each coach has a certain amount of money they are allowed to use each year and they cannot exceed this total scholarship amount. Ty Singleton, MU Head Softball Coach, has not given out a full scholarship during his three years coaching here. Equivalency sports include baseball, men and women's golf, men's and women's swimming, men's and women's track, wrestling, soccer, and softball.

Seventy-five percent of student athletes receive athletic scholarships, whereas only fifty percent of MU students as a whole receive grants or scholarships. These numbers do not take into account how many athletes also receive academic scholarships and grants or the actual amounts of the financial aid. Although this seems like an advantage for student athletes, many of these scholarships only amount to a few hundred dollars while the average scholarship for non-athletes is $2200. Athletes need just as much to of financial aid because 31 percent of both student athletes and non-athletes take out loans.

Aaron Aaker, the Financial Aid Compliance Coordinator for the MU Athletic Department, said he feels that the student athletes are just like other students on campus when it comes to finances.

"It's really a cross-section of campus. Student athletes are just like everyone else, they just have less time to do it in," Aaker said.

Time availability is one of the biggest factors for student athletes who attempt to work. Singleton said many of his players work during the off-season, but very few can manage during the season unless they have a very flexible work schedule. Singleton himself struggles with a full schedule, taking a break from batting practice with a few of the players to answer questions. Standing just outside the batting cage in the direct heat of the late afternoon sun, Singleton explained some of the time commitments student athletes face.

"Last year we traveled the first eight weekends of January and February," Singleton said. "We generally don't arrive back until after midnight on Sunday night...It has got to be something they really want to do."

According to the NCAA, student athletes are only allowed to have twenty hours of practice per week during the season. However, those twenty hours do not include travel time, study halls, or therapy. Travel time alone can often add an extra 5-10 hours per week. Singleton said on a day where the softball team plays three games, each game may only last an hour and therefore legally the players have only used three hours of their allotted time for the week. However, many players arrive up to two hours early before a home game for therapy and warm-up. The players will also stay at the field in between the games.

During her time as a swimmer, Robinson attempted to work at the Alumni Center to supplement her partial athletic scholarship. After several months she wasn't able to work the number of hours they requested and was eventually let go.

"Athletes who can do it, I admire," said Singleton, "Those athletes who can manage to work and play ball prepare for the challenges of life after college."

Robinson agrees that working during college is important for student athletes, not just because of future challenges, but also for their career. Robinson said she feels many student athletes are far behind other college students because they lack work experience and other resume building activities. This is a third major factor in the decision for student athletes to work. Even if a job is not necessary for financial reasons, Robinson said she feels it is important for an athlete's future.

"Bosses don't care if you swam for four years in college...Once you leave college it's like a huge slap in the face," Robinson said.

This reason was perhaps the most influential in Robinson's decision to retire from swimming this year.

"I felt like swimming was holding me back," Robinson said, "Now I feel like I'm getting an upper hand."

Robinson now has time to look for an internship this summer, a move she feels will enhance her future more than swimming. Only 5 percent of college athletes go on to play sports professionally, the other 95 percent are forced to build careers when they often have little hands on experience to offer employers.

Adrian McBride, a former MU football player and NFL wide receiver, has started a program called Life After Sports to address these concerns. McBride, along with his wife Julie Dorn-McBride who is a former MU gymnast and was inducted into the University of Missouri Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame, started the Life After Sports Program to offer career guidance, sports transition and placement for former or current student athletes.

The program started on Jan. 1 of this year and already McBride and his wife are in contact with and assisting over thirty former and current student athletes at MU. Sitting in the study area at the MU Athletic Complex, McBride gestured to the walls lined with study rooms full of student athletes as he talked about his vision for the program.

"We want to make the program as solid as possible and in the future possibly replicate it at other universities," McBride said.

Interested student athletes send a resume to McBride who in turns sends them a candidate profile that consists of personal and career oriented questions. The profile is meant to get the athletes thinking about interests, goals and possible plans for the future. From there the student athletes receive training regarding interviewing skills, resume writing, networking and social skills, even dining etiquette. McBride also works to pair athletes with companies for internships while still in school or jobs after they graduate.

McBride also said he hopes the Life After Sports Program will give student athletes a taste of reality that many do not experience during school because they have things planned out for them by parents, coaches and counselors. Above all McBride is working to educate student athletes to plan for the future and not only focus on their current situation, which he said is a major struggle of many of the athletes.

"They need an eye-opener," McBride said, "They get out into the real world and many of them are lost with no direction."

Student athletes must consider time commitments and financial need when deciding whether to work. Even for those lucky few to be financially secure enough not to work, a job is still a major advantage for future employment. The decision for student athletes is never easy or permanent. For Robinson, a job was necessary to supplement her partial scholarship, but impossible with her swim schedule. However, in the end she decided to forgo swimming altogether in order to better prepare for her future. No matter what her decision, Robinson looks back on her time as a student athlete as a positive time in her life.

"It's such a great title being a student athlete. Swimming has shaped who I am," Robinson said.

Source Contact Info:

• Kyle Robinson: 573.424.2955 (cell)
• Aaron Aaker: 573.882.3240 (work)
• Ty Singleton: Contact through Emily Gatewood, Media Relations Associate for MU
• Athletic Dept: 573.884.8519 (work)
• Adrian McBride: 573.882-7864 (work)