Going to a bar or hanging out with friends at a party is what most students do during their years at LSU, but for some, partying and social gatherings are put on the back burner for other activities. Some individuals wake up early in the morning for a 7:30 class before grabbing a quick bite to eat and heading to practice, where they spend the next few hours practicing, lifting weights and preparing for another game. After finally getting home, they remember they have a test later in the week. Even though they are tired from a day of school and practice, they open a book and begin to study until bedtime. Although this may sound like a nightmare to most, this is what many college athletes experience on a daily basis. From football players to soccer players, they all go through a similar routine, and all have to find a way to balance school, the sport they love and friends. Athletes, such as senior soccer player Joleen Phillips, have to prioritize the aspects of their lives and learn to make sacrifices. “I definitely have to learn how to say no a lot when it comes to the social aspect of things,” Phillips said. “Some people can make it out more than me, but I choose to spare my energy.” Phillips said sports and school take up most of her time, and she often finds that the two combined make it difficult to live a normal college life. “When I can get a rest, I’m usually at home a lot,” Phillips said. “But don’t get me wrong, I will occasionally go out with some of the girls, and we’ll hang, go to restaurants and stuff like that, but it’s nothing extreme.” Phillips enters her fourth year at LSU and is coming off her second-consecutive year of being named to the Southeastern Conference Academic Honor Roll. After tearing her anterior cruciate ligament in 2004, Phillips said she balances and prioritizes the activities in her day by how important they are to her future. “Well obviously I’ve had my ACL torn and my fair share of ankle injuries,” Phillips said. “So I’ve come to realize that academics will probably get you further ’cause in sports there is always that risk of injury, so I would say academics is my number one priority and soccer a close second.” Another player that has experienced academic success while playing for LSU is sophomore tennis player Staten Spencer. Spencer, who received a medical redshirt last season because of a back injury, was named an Intercollegiate Tennis Association Scholar-Athlete on Aug. 11. Individuals who receive this award were required to maintain a 3.5 GPA for the 2005-2006 academic school year. Spencer said being named a Scholar-Athlete was an honor, and she has found that balancing everything a student athlete has to handle can be difficult at times. “Right now we really don’t have much of a social life,” Spencer said. “That’s one of the sacrifices you have to make. We just try and balance school and tennis, and if there is time for something else, then we think about going out.” Spencer said tennis has helped her maintain focus in school. “It’s easier, I think, to be more disciplined while you’re playing because you have to be on top of things and get something done by a certain time so you can get out and go play,” Spencer said. “You just have to remember to do the right thing, and that might mean giving up something a normal college student might be able to do.” Although some athletes can simplify their daily lives into a schedule, some struggle with the fact that being an athlete at a university is a major responsibility. Senior linebacker Jason Spadoni entered his freshman season at LSU in 2002 after a very productive high school career at John Curtis High School. Spadoni played in 11 games on special teams in 2002 but became academically ineligible before his sophomore season when his GPA dipped below NCAA standards. Spadoni said he knows he did not do a good job balancing his time off the field and said staying on top of school and football was difficult. “With me, I don’t think I had good time management skills, and I think that’s what got me,” Spadoni said. “I like to go to practice and go home, watch a little TV, and by the time you know it, it’s 10:00 at night, and you don’t have any homework done. And about that time you’re so tired that you just go to bed.” After sitting out his sophomore season, Spadoni said he now knows how to properly balance school and sports. “It’s easier to balance everything if you just go to class everyday,” Spadoni said. “Make it to class everyday and listen in class and look over your notes – not every night but like once or twice a week take time and look over the notes that you have for each class. Then you worry about football and all the other things you have going on.” Spadoni, Spencer and Phillips all agreed that being a college athlete is a responsibility that demands a great deal of time and effort. They also said that as athletes they seem to miss out on a lot of things regular college students get to experience, but trying to balance school, sports and a very active social life would be a challenge. “It’s hard to balance it all out sometimes,” Spadoni said. “But you have to remember that you can’t make it in the world today without a college education, and you can’t play the sports you love without making the grades so that makes it a little bit easier.”
—–Contact Jay St. Pierre at [email protected]