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D'Andre Stafford

Element 1

Participation in a varsity athletic program requires a great amount of time and effort to meet the demands of practices, meetings, training, film sessions and games, thus adding extra stressors to first-year students trying to integrate into university life in general. These time commitments may reduce a student athlete’s academic engagement and, therefore, negatively affect one’s academic success. The purpose of this article is to offer successful advise that will help first-year athlete Balance Class and Athletics.

 

Contents

  1. Time Management
  2. Management of Free time

III.       Starting Immediately

  1. Importance of Study Hall
  2. What’s important?

Element Two

Plan you time Wisely:

Students need to know that from the time they wake up till the time the lay back down for bed needs to be accounted for.  Start your day early enough that will allow time for mishap during the day.  Know what time classes start and how much time you have between classes.  Know what time practices and workout start to ensure time to eat and rest.  Proper eating and rest will allow student athletes to preform their best of the field. Sync your assignments due dates to your phone calendar so that you can monitor when they are due.

Use weekends Wisely:

As a high schooler, student-athletes look forward to Friday night football games and chilling with your friends.  College student-athletes during the season are preparing for games on Friday night and Saturday are participating in a game.  According to Fry (1991), “Free weekends should be spent on getting ahead with assignments or completing work that the athlete was unable to be completed by he weekly due date” (pg 36).   Athletes of any sport must remember that the days leading up to competition will be filled with preparation for the game.  Coaches recruited student-athletes not just athletes. Remember we are students first.

Don’t not Procrastinate:

Start every assignment in timely manner.  Give yourself enough time if something comes up and you are unable to complete your work, starting your assignment early will not put your grade in jeopardy due to turning in late assignments.  Lose the mentality I have or it is not due till two days from now. Complete the assignment and then you will have time to relax and kick it with your new college buddies.

Take advantage of study hall:

First thing my parents asked my recruiting coach was, does the university offer a tutoring program for the athletes?  Attending study hall is a requirement set by coaches to give their athletes time to complete work with several tutors in one location.  Students can also seek assistance from their peers attending same courses that will allow them to network and gain ideas on how to complete different assignments and projects.  Coach Lucas, Defense coach, states “mandatory study hall has done wonders for the first years players (Coach Lucas, personal communication, October 2, 2020).  Several of the players struggle with expressing their needs during study hall they are in a familiar setting and we let the guys know feel free to ask for help. This is what this time has been designated for.”

Before practice Study Hall

University of Pikeville

Demands on our time never end (See the bigger Goal)

Seeing the bigger goal is what my former wide-receiver coach used to say at the end of practice daily.  After interviewing upperclassmen Trevon Wofford, he states he had to develop the mindset that high school football prepared him for college (T. Wofford, personal communication, September 30, 2020).  College is preparing him for the NFL and once you reach that level the demand of or time is huge and that understanding allows you to make the right decision as an employee of a professional team.  He also mentioned that I am freshman and I am just getting started.  When I signed my scholarship to play football at UPIKE, I now belong to the university.  Be humble, work hard on and off the field and my time will come.

 

Element Three

References Page

Fry, E. (1991). Seeing the big picture and getting there: The national magazine of sports fundamentals.       Sports Magazine, 93(10), 36. Retrieved from http:search.proquest.com.library.acaweb.org/advanced?accountid=13193/docview/230132259?accountid =13193

Zainal, N. (2016, 07). Let’s talk about time: Managing time zone, time range, rounding of time, and more. Workforce Management (Time and Attendance) Excellence Essentials, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.library.acaweb.org/advanced?accountid=13193/docview/1955125925?accountid =13193

Koda calls for avoiding political procrastination at the national dialogue to achieve its objectives. (2015, Oct 23). AllAfrica.ComRetrieved from http://0-search.proquest.com.library.acaweb.org/advanced?accountid=13193/docview/1726692742?accountid =13193

License

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Balancing Athletics & Academics Copyright © by D'Andre Stafford is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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