Is it all about the money?

Recruiting is all about salesmanship and how good of a deal you can offer your client. At the Division I level, top recruits are treated like celebrities. An official visit consists of more than an overnight stay in a dorm and a tour of campus. The coaches and players are selling the school, the location, the environment, the social life, and the education. The recruits are persuaded by top-of-the-line gear, perfectly maintained facilities, and the fan base, so it might seem strange that there are still Division I-level players at Division III schools.

It is not strictly the education that brings quality athletes to Division III schools like Carnegie Mellon; it is the package deal. Carnegie Mellon is a member of the University Athletic Association (UAA), which is a conference that prides itself on providing Division I athletics with a Division III education. Students at schools like Carnegie Mellon, Washington University in St. Louis, and the University of Chicago take pride in their abilities in the classroom and on the field, and this balance sells the school.

Carnegie Mellon is recognized nationally because of academics, not athletics, but for many high school students, athletics can be a deciding factor in choosing to attend. The most difficult aspect of recruiting high-caliber players at the Division III level is the lack of athletic scholarships. Fully-funded Division I schools have 14 full-ride scholarships they can distribute to athletes, while the NCAA prohibits Division III athletic departments from providing scholarships. While athletic scholarship are off limits, scholar-athletes in the UAA receive a comparable experience to Division I athletes while in the program. The athletic funding for schools in the UAA allows for high-end equipment and facilities, along with the ability to travel by jet to compete. By providing funding to the athletic department, scholar-athletes can have the athletic experience of a Division I athlete and the academic experience of a Division III student.

While schools like Carnegie Mellon will probably never have athletes like Tim Tebow the Division III name should not deter Division I-caliber athletes from competing at a Division III level

The Big Decision

Over the past few days as I have been doing my best to cope with the end of my collegiate soccer career, I have been living vicariously through my younger sister who is a senior in high school about to embark on her career as a Division III athlete.  Even though she has already made her decision about where she will go to school next year, it had me thinking about the college search process.

It wasn’t until my sister began the search process that I really thought much about how I made my decision.  Carnegie Mellon just sort of worked out.  But once my sister decided she wanted to play Division III soccer I was suddenly the expert on how to choose a college.

While I may not have used any logical strategy for choosing a school, hindsight has given me some perspective on what female athletes should consider.

I know that counselors and handbooks have a thousand and one things to consider when choosing a college like location, size, academic programs, cost, etc., but as a female athlete I think there is one thing that can make or break a school.  If you are really serious about playing a sport in college, go on an official visit and meet the team because these are the girls you will be spending 90% of your free time with.  I am not advocating for a decision based solely on how well you get along with the team, but I am saying that if you meet the team and can’t see yourself being friends a single girl, get the hell out of there as fast as you can.  It is inevitable that you will see these girls nearly every day.  You will practice with them.  You will take seven-hour bus trips with them.  You will share hotel rooms with them.  And if you do not get along with them, you will be miserable, no matter how successful you are.

I was very fortunate to have the best teammates on the face of the planet, but I know others who have not been as lucky.  So once you’ve narrowed down your search to a handful of schools visit them, meet the team, and if you don’t get along—do not hesitate—and cross that school off your list.

Thanks for the coverage, but it's not what I had in mind

Well I’m happy that soccer is finally being recognized as something other than a sport for “pansies” or “Sallys” but the reputation being established by people like Elizabeth Lambert and the girls at Woonsocket and Tolman high schools is not exactly what I had in mind.

I realize that women’s soccer is a long way off from being broadcast on primetime television, but the fact that in the past week I have seen more coverage of women’s soccer—and it has not been good coverage—than I have seen in the past year is fairly depressing.

I am all for soccer being a physical game—it is a contact sport as much as people try to knock it—but come on Lambert, what the hell were you thinking?  Yes, games get emotional and what better way to take out your frustration than with a hard tackle, a subtle elbow, or clipping someone’s heels, but at least make it look like your going for the ball.  Julie Foudy explained it perfectly, “Yes there is a lot of battling for position, some snippy play off the ball, and in the women’s game even some hair pulling, but when you just about snap someone’s neck off by pulling their hair, my goodness that’s crazy!”

At least when Zinedine Zadane head-butted Materazzi it was a tough-guy move—even if it did make him look moderately insane.  Hair-pulling is just such a catty move that proves right everyone who says women are too emotional—which we are sometimes—to play sports.

I would love for women’s soccer to finally be respected as a contact sport with some tough, hard-hitting women, but the hair pulling and after-the-fact punches are taking us in the wrong direction.  If we want to gain respect for our sport the hits need to come from bodies flying for a diving header in the last five minutes of a nil-nil game, or a decleating slide-tackle on a grass field on a rainy day.

If you missed either of these absurd acts of female rage, check out the following links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC-pF3OHY1c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aCN_-n67cI

Is Life as a Non-athlete really possible?

Well, enough discussing my opinions (that seems to get me in trouble) and onto something that I know nothing about: life without soccer.  With just one game left in my collegiate soccer career—considering the closest I’m going to get to a playoff game will be sitting on the sidelines as a fan for the men’s team—I am starting to become fairly anxious about this thing called “not being a competitive athlete.”

Like most collegiate athletes, I have grown playing my respective sport—soccer—and I cannot fathom a life that revolves around something other than a Nike ball.  At the end of my last ever preseason—including two-a-days in the August heat and passing the infamous Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test—I thought I would be happy if I never heard the words “the test starts in fifteen seconds” ever again; but as my days as a collegiate athlete are numbered I’m beginning to worry that I am going to miss waking and wondering if I’m going to be able to walk when I get out of bed.

I realize that I can continue playing soccer once I graduate, there are plenty of adult leagues out there, but I now have a newfound understanding for some of “crazy-intense 35-year-old men” I have played co-ed recreational adult soccer with over the years.  It is not just the sport I am going to miss, but I am not sure what I am going to do with all of the pent up competitiveness I cannot get rid of.

Right now I am looking at two options.  Option A: find a team to play on in Europe so I don’t have to face reality just yet (any suggestions of teams would be greatly appreciated).  Option B: be that annoying lady who takes playing in an adult women’s league way to seriously.

Time Management or Competitive Nature?

After three years of being a collegiate athlete and the host for numerous recruits I have determined the most commonly asked question: How do you manage your time between soccer and school? Depending on who the questioner is (parent or recruit) my answer has ranged from “You learn to really plan ahead and we get time set aside on road trips to do our homework” to “I don’t manage it.”

It is a common assumption that student-athletes have well-developed time management skills and while I’m sure this assumption holds true for many student-athletes I am beginning to question whether it is time management or a competitive edge that allows athletes to succeed—or at least not fail—in the classroom.

Last Thursday I had a seven page and a three page paper due, along with 47 pages of reading. I also knew that I had a game the Wednesday night before that was two and a half hours away and didn’t start until 7pm. Having known all of this I had big plans to start my homework early. I had my calendar all laid out: I would get all of my homework for Monday and Tuesday done over the weekend and that would leave Monday and Tuesday night to do my work for Wednesday and Thursday. The execution of my plan was faulty. I seemed to have forgotten that time I had allotted for homework would be interrupted by class, practice, eating and not to mention Gossip Girls, House, and the Avalanche games. So, like most college students I procrastinated and come Wednesday I had completed one paragraph of my seven-page paper—nothing else.

At 12:30am Thursday morning as our bus pulled back into campus I was really wondering about that time management skill I had supposedly developed. As we unpacked our bags in the locker room I heard the stressed voices of my teammates complaining about lab reports, tests, and essays all due within the next twelve hours—I was not alone in my procrastination.

It was 1:15 by the time I had made it home, showered and settled into my desk chair to start my homework. With a cup of coffee in hand I wasn’t stressed, or worried, or flustered. I knew what I had to get done and when it had to be done by. I buckled down, focused and started to type. Two hours later my focus was drifting and the cozy fleece of my SpongeBob sheets were calling my name. Refusing to succumb to the temptation of my cozy bed, my 4^th quarter mentality kicked in.

At 10:30am I headed to campus with my papers and reading done—and done well if I do say so myself. I realized that the cause of my academic success was not my time management, but rather my competitive nature and need to push myself. Page five of my paper was like level 12 on the Yo-Yo test. It was that point when my body physically could go no further but my mind pushed my body past the point of exhaustion all in an effort to be the best—or at least not fail.