The end of winter quarter was approaching, and like many other
students, Lisa Willis had a 10-page paper due. And like most other
students, she was procrastinating. But Willis had a special excuse
that could win a professor’s sympathy regardless of how many
times it was used.
For the standout forward on the women’s basketball team,
trying to secure a spot for the Bruins in the NCAA tournament took
precedent over any school assignments she had due.
Willis is one of over 600 student-athletes juggling an academic
workload with a rigorous training schedule. The only things tested
more than their intellectual acuity or athletic prowess are their
time management skills.
“The coaches expect for you to be super successful on the
court, and then you’re supposed to be super successful in the
classroom too,” Willis said. “It’s hard to put
your time into two things.”
Athletes acknowledge that once the season starts, academics may
not be put on the back burner, but they do get thrown into some
pretty cramped spaces.
“Whether you like it or not, athletics comes first once
the season starts,” said Keith Carter, a tight end on the
football team.
The emphasis on sports has helped create a stereotypical image
of athletes as less interested in the academic sphere.
“There’s a big stereotype that athletes don’t
care,” Carter said. “It’s true for some of us,
but some of us take it really seriously. We have some smart people
on this team, and they can hold their own with the kids here that
got in for their academics.”
Yet because most athletes are admitted to UCLA for their
athletic ability, they are set apart. The scholarship money they
receive or recognition they earn is paid for on a daily basis.
Although most teams’ practices are normally only scheduled
for two hours each day, the block of time athletes must devote to
their sport is often twice as long.
Lindsay Greco, a midfielder on the women’s soccer team,
usually starts her day around 7:15 a.m. for a 9 a.m. practice. She
and some of her teammates arrive at the training room up to a half
hour before practice begins to receive treatment followed by yet
another treatment session afterwards. Their schedule is further
compounded by weightlifting twice a week after practice, which
usually takes up to another hour or so. By the time Greco heads up
Bruin Walk for the first time, her day feels half over.
“Sometimes you just want to go home and sleep, but you
have to do it,” Greco said. “In the end, it’s
worth it.”
The strict athletic regimen limits an athlete’s course
selection. Although they are given priority enrollment, they must
select classes around their overarching priority.
“I would take different classes,” Willis said.
“But from 12-4, that’s basketball time. We have to take
our classes in the morning.”
Coaches recognize the intense pressure on athletes, particularly
when midterms and finals roll around. Unfortunately, the academic
climax tends to coincide with the peak of the athletic season. Last
year, the women’s soccer team took their final exams in North
Carolina after reaching the College Cup.
“You can’t really afford to do that,”
women’s soccer coach Jill Ellis said of taking it easier on
the players during exam periods. “When they have midterms in
October, it’s in the thick of the Pac-10 schedule.”
Rather than cutting her players slack on the practice field,
Ellis said she tries to educate them to manage their time well and
prepare themselves before going on road trips. She meets with her
players every five weeks to discuss their lives off the field,
including monitoring their grades and checking up on their social
lives. Ellis understands that allowing her players to neglect their
academic workload will not help the team’s athletic
performance.
“At the end of the day, if they don’t pass and do
well in school, they can’t play,” she said.
Staying on top of the academic workload during the season forces
athletes to prepare for classes in a manner that can be
unfathomable to a larger part of the student body. Last year,
Greco’s schedule required her to take two midterms the day
after a game against LMU. To prevent her exam preparation from
interfering with her usual game preparation, she began studying at
a time when some students probably hadn’t even cracked open
the textbook.
“I put aside other things and studied the week
before,” Greco said.
Greco, like all other student-athletes, does have a wealth of
resources to help her prepare and focus on schoolwork. As freshmen,
the athletes attend mandatory study hall for four hours a week. All
athletes also have tutors available for their courses upon
request.
“Our tutors are always willing to reschedule,” Greco
said. “There’s a great support system. Without them,
it’d be a little more difficult.”
While the athletic department makes every effort to fulfill a
student-athlete’s academic needs, the athletes often rely on
accommodating professors as well.
“There are some professors who love the athletes to death.
They realize that we have a lot to do,” Willis said.
“There are others who think that we’re putting
ourselves on a pedestal because we’re on an athletic
scholarship. And that’s not right. We work just as
hard.”
For their hard work, the athletes do receive perks. But these
benefits are perceived very differently among the athletes than by
the rest of the student body.
“Sure we get new shoes, but we’re going to be
running miles on the track,” Willis said. “We went to
Hawaii my freshman year and we ran in the tournament. It’s
not like we’re hanging out at the beach.”
Perhaps the greatest perks are the connections athletes are able
to develop because of their status.
“You meet people in high places,” Willis said.
“People that later on in life you’ll maybe get to work
for.”
But for now, Willis and other student-athletes are busy with two
other kinds of work, which doesn’t leave much time to think
about what comes later on.
With reports from Bryan Chu and Seth Fast Glass.