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time for themselves," he says. "Take an hour to go to the Union or sten to a CD so you're doing something to gain energy."
Richard says establishing a social life can be awkward because practice, competition and class responsibilities don't leave much time to mingle with friends and form close bonds outside of sports. "Most of my good friends are all athletes," Richard says. "Very aw athletes I know date someone who's not an athlete. I just got married this summer. My husband was also a former track and field athlete at KU. Student athletes don't bridge out, and then all they ave are athletes as friends."
Richard says all the traveling that comes with being a college athlete can actually be beneficial, as it allows athletes a time to bond with each other in addition to working on their homework.
"At practice, you kind of talk when you stretch," Richard says. But when you're on the bus you have three hours to get where you're going. You don't have that urgency of practice so it's easy to socialize and catch up with everybody or play games."
Commitment
Following practice, many athletes head to the trainers' room to receive treatment on an ailing body part. The long hours practicing in play a role in an athlete's slipping academic performance. But I self says that, like in sports, student athletes must push through the fatigue in order to meet their academic commitments.
"When I played in college, the toughest thing was to stay as activated as I needed to be to study when my body was always tired," Self says. "That was the toughest thing; when your body just likes it needs to shut down.That's when you really need to hit hard studying."
For Richard, a typical day would start with morning practice from 7 to 8 a.m., followed by class from 9 a.m. until about noon. Richard would then attend afternoon practice from 2:30 p.m. until 4:30 or 5 p.m. Track meets would require three to four days for travel and competition
"We were having track meets every weekend, and we would leave Thursday or Friday and wouldn't return until Saturday night or Sunday morning and then we would practice at 2 p.m." Richard says.
Despite the grueling schedule, Richard says she never contemplated quitting track in order to focus solely on school.
"Coach brought me here because he thought I could do it." Richard said. "There was never a time I thought I couldn't do both."
An Assist
help you in the workforce."
Just as in sports, coaching can play an integral part in academic success. Since July 2006, the University has employed full-time sports psychologist Megan Brent to provide assistance to student athletes. Brent counsels athletes on personal issues, such as relationships and performance enhancement, which often overlap. She also works with sports teams on things like team-building and mental skills training.
Brent says that another of her obligations to the athletes is to assist them in dealing with stress, and she says counseling can provide a place for them to talk about their stressors, receive emotional support, and build healthy coping strategies for managing stress. Brent says that having a sports psychologist at the University is important because student athletes may not know where to go for help otherwise.
Tapping success can recharge anyone's motivation, and motivation is crucial in life, where there are no timeouts, halftimes or off-days.
"The most important thing an athlete can do is make a commitment," Yukelson says. "The value of education is important. That doesn't mean that you have to like every class, but you have to go to school and get the skills that are going to
"They may avoid counseling because of the stigma in sports in relation to seeking help," Brent says."Having a psychologist on staff in athletics makes it more convenient for student athletes to seek counseling."
Yukelson says the assistance provided by sports psychologists to help manage time and stress may be one of the reasons student athletes at the University set an all-time record last fall with a combined 2.93 GPA, the highest ever for a fall semester.
Like in any sport, success in academics comes from training. Yukelson says.
"You need mental training for peak performance," he says. "You develop mental toughness. When you set a goal for a 3.0 and you fail a test, then you develop strategies." I thought I was studying right, maybe I need to get a tutor, or study differently. There's not a cookbook, everybody is different. You got to know what you need in order to be successful."
Team GPAs
Baseball 2.75
Men's Basketball 2.82
Women's Basketball 3.11
Football 2.39
Men's Golf 2.90
Women's Golf 3.37
Rowing 3.14
Softball 3.08
Soccer 2.96
Swimming & Diving 3.29
Tennis 3.28
Men's Track & Field 2.85
Women's Track & Field 3.13
Volleyball 3.33
Spirit Squad (new for spring 07) 2.95
All Sports Combined 2.93
● Women's basketball set an all- time record for the sport.
● Women's golf had the highest GPA for the semester
● The cumulative GPA of all sports was a fall semester record.
Student- Athlete Grade Summary Fall 2007
Athletics Director's Honor Roll
4.00 — 48 "All-time record
3.00-3.99 — 182
Total — 229
(50% of students on active rosters)
Spirit Squad AD
Honor Roll
4.00 — 2
3.00-3.99 — 33
Total — 35
negl vel is
gently, to annoy, molest, harass or disturb any manatee." Anyone convicted of violating Florida's state law is punishable by a fine of up to $100,000 and one year in prison. — savethemanatee.org graphic by: Brenna Hawley 01.31.2008 VOL 519578