The Athletic balancing act

By: Kofi Agyeman

Staff Writer

A mystery to non-athletic college students is how student-athletes learn to balance their lives.

Student-athletes shared their secrets on just how hard their college experience truly can be.

Caleb Canty played for the men’s basketball team and an individual studies major. Currently, the Vikings are undefeated on the court, with an 8-0 record. This is their best start in 10 years.

None of this comes easy though. “[Practice runs] about two hours a day, six days a week and about five hours a day personally,” Canty said.

Classes are a different story. “I’m satisfied but I know I could do better,” Canty said. “I’m not giving all the effort,” he said. “I personally know I could be doing a lot better.”

This seemed to be a familiar trend among Hudson Valley athletes.

Bobby McBride played for the football team and an individual studies major. He had played multiple sports since elementary school and is no stranger to hard work.

“[I practice] 15 hours a week and sometimes we go a little over,” McBride said.

Despite these hardships, McBride doesn’t surrender.

“I don’t see why not pursue football as hard as i’m pursuing academics,” McBride said. “I put a lot of time into this,” he said. “I’m pursuing both just as hard.”

He juggled school, online classes, exercising, practices and work. “I stay up at least twice a week just doing schoolwork,” he said. “I’ll get off [work] at 1 a.m. and just stay up ‘til about 7 or 8 a.m.”

The stress can be brutal at times.

“How can you expect kids to focus on anything when they’ve gotta make sure they work to pay bills?” McBride asked. “I gotta work to eat, pay bills, make ends meet while I play ball and study.”

Not all of our athletic teams are so demanding however. Women’s cross country runner and liberal arts major Sarah Rosenberger prefered to relax a bit.

“It’s very flexible because you can do your running at home as well,” she said.

This leaves the responsibility on the students to build a schedule that’s for them and it has worked. The team placed first in regionals and fifth nationally this year.

If there one thing that rings true, it’s that these athletes are all motivated and aware of the situation that they’re in. They push themselves just as hard in the classroom as they do in the gym.