With all eyes on the college admissions scandal, let’s change the negative to positive. To all those high school seniors who have struggled through the SAT & ACT tests, AP tests, and revised all those college application essays, congratulations on your selection by May 1^st.

As the dust settles and most of the information comes out about the scandal, let’s put our focus on what it means and entails to be a scholar athlete to play sports for NCAA colleges. Many parents, who were not able to go after their dream of playing for NCAA in college, notice their child’s dream and help them achieve it. The road is long and hard, however as parents we must let our children work through the complexities that arise on their own.

A True College Athlete

For those wondering what it truly entails, let me set the stage and walk you through those adversities that will pop up. Get ready for some push back and get ready to watch your student grow. There will be late nights and early 6am study sessions before those hard AP exams in high school, sport injuries with late night rehab, and the many sport travels for college recruiting.

Be ready to experience the ride of their life. It is quite impressive to watch your child grow right in front of your eyes. It really isn’t about the money that backs the athlete, yet the determination that the student has deep down inside that earns them their scholarship money. At this point, it is important for the athlete to understand that the amount of time they actually play is not the end goal, but the cheery on top after a wonderful opportunity that the NCAA gives scholars.

It Takes True Grit

It’s not all a beauty contest or as simple as it looks when they tell you the players’ stories. There is a lot of pain that goes with it. If you’ve seen the movie Rudy, a boy trying to be admitted into Notre Dame, succeeds and achieves his dream of playing football for the Fighting Irish. Yet, many don’t know the injuries that players of all sports must endure while never even having any real game or court time. The movie Rudy shows many scenes where he is in the training room with packs of ice on his shoulders.

If you’ve never had ice on an injury before, you have no idea what uncomfortable really means until you experience it. My daughter, who played volleyball, would leave club matches during high school years with one or both of her knees wrapped in ice. I remember asking her if the plastic wrapped around her knee worked as a buffer between the ice and her skin. When she described to me the process, my eyes and respect widened.

With Dreams Comes Injury

What the trainers do is put ice in a plastic bag creating a pack which is put onto the knee and then they wrap the ice pack with the plastic to keep it secure. Mind you, it isn’t something that can be taken off easily. So as the ice feels like it’s burning, it is numbing the pain. She would walk out of the tournament facility wearing this contraption while walking to the car. Since her tournaments were always more than an hour from our home, she would wear this ice pack the majority of the time home. Because of the positions she played, jumping created tendon and muscle tears. She would state that it numbs the pain, but when she takes it off and the numbness decreases, in comes the pain again of the tendons.

Surprisingly, a true athlete who loves playing their sport, straps all the ankle and knee braces back on the next day for practice session. That’s where I see the true athlete. This is where their perseverance and determination comes out. This is the strength of a true athlete. Seeing how some people think they can take their computer, transfer their picture onto another person doing the sport, and submit that into the real world of athleticism blows my mind. It amazes me how they’re thinking they are at the same caliper. They never lived one moment of soreness or injury and never lived even one game the same as these true NCAA players. That is true disrespect to the long road athletes ride towards their dream.

Stories of True Endurance

It could be the authenticity that illuminates from these stories when they tell the “behind the player” journey. These amazing people endure so much in their lives and the stories attract those wishing they could be seen this way. The attraction of these narratives showing how these players grew in their sport is so short, and the athletes’ history doesn’t have the opportunity to illustrate all the true pain they worked through. Since someone with money can purchase anything expensive that makes them believe they are better or fit into a certain group, this must have been part of these individual’s thinking behind this scandal. These students who lied about being a scholar athlete should be required to attend all the hours in the training room watching these injured athletes as they rehab and recuperate after each game.  

NCAA’s Secret Gift of Balance

The secret of NCAA is the way it creates balance for the scholar athlete. This special time of being a scholar athlete works as a great playing field where an individual can see how life works and flows. It is an extraordinary moment in their lives that helps them learn that it really isn’t all about winning but what it takes to be a winner in life. Playing for NCAA means you learn how to work as a team even when you feel you are out of the race. You learn how tough you are and how tough you can become. You may also learn that playing Division I isn’t your goal; however finding a Division III school that lets you play the sport you love and achieve the knowledge for your career, may fit your dream better.

The athletic part of college balances out the day of these players, and balances out your thinking. It also keeps you focused because you are working on your studies and practices of your sport. Cherish the time that you’re there as a scholar athlete. When you’re in the moment, your focus is about the win. If you can practice to step back and look at your surroundings, you will see what you created and appreciate all the hard work. Sometimes scholar athletes are in such a hurry to get on with the rest of their lives that they forget to stop and enjoy their team mates and the effort it took to get there.

Lesson Learned Through Hard Work

Brent Land, a former student athlete swimmer from University of Michigan, states in his NCAA video, “Everyone makes mistakes, it’s just a question of how you learn from and respond to those mistakes that determines the trajectory of your life.” I suppose that this quote coming from a hard working former athlete can be applied to those who felt they needed to cheat to become something special. Whereas, these cheaters never experienced the qualities of teamwork, a group disappointment, or struggle through balancing their studies with daily practice like the real college athletes.  

Speaking of practices, those who pretended to be a true college athlete will never know the pain that goes into the preseason for Division I-III. The triple practice sessions in Division III volleyball went for 2 hours each the first three days. Then the workouts went to doubles for a week at 2 hours each. Once the season starts, these athletes train 2 hours daily. Those who live with pain from past injuries need to rehab after each session and then get back into their ankle and knee braces while taping ankles and shoulders again with kinesiology taping techniques.

These youngsters trying to be something they’re not can’t fathom what makes up a true athlete. Most importantly, they never experience the sportsmanship. Sportsmanship is the ability to put in strenuous amounts of time perfecting their sport, while having the class of walking with their team members to shake hands after a tough loss. That’s a true college athlete.

What I’m trying to put forth to those thinking about being an NCAA player is that nothing is easy. It is full of hard work, pain, and disappointment. However, it is full of opportunity to find out just how tough an individual you are. You learn how balance works in your life, you learn how to behave in situations that aren’t very favorable, and you receive the opportunity to watch yourself grow and become the person you always dreamed you could become.

Dreams of Athletes Come True

As a child, Kermit sang, “Rainbows are visions, they’re only illusions and rainbows have nothing to hide. So we’ve been told and some chose to believe it, but I know they’re wrong wait and see. Someday we’ll find it, The Rainbow Connection; the lovers, the dreamers, and me.” When I hear those words, I reflect on life’s brilliance that offers us the dreams in our hearts, and then guides us like a rainbow when it offers its wonder. Athletes today believe in their hearts that they were born to play the sport they love. It’s this belief that forms their dreams.

Jiminy Cricket said it best when he crooned, “When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are. Anything your heart desires will come to you.” Congratulations to all the NCAA Division I-III athletes who work so tirelessly at perfecting their sport. Try to let this scandal leave your hearts and keep your focus strong. Somehow these greats take all the stress, pain, and adversity they endure and show the grit it takes to be a college athlete. They truly have the guts to put it all on the playing field. They are truly the dreamers who come out of their college years educated, full of integrity, and the bad assets of the world.