Student-athletes are recognized by their success on the field, but for a particular group of 33, their accomplishments go far beyond the playing field.
The Southeastern Conference recently announced LSU had several student-athletes who were placed on the SEC Fall Academic Honor Roll. To achieve the honor the student must have a GPA of at least 3.2 during three semesters — summer, spring and fall — and must be at least a sophomore.
Those receiving the prestigious award include sophomore running back Justin Vincent, senior volleyball outside hitter Regan Hood and soccer senior forward Artie Brown.
“My grades are very important because I am trying to get into physical therapy school,” Brown said. “I challenge myself and do the best I can in every class. As long as I try my best that is all I can do.”
These athletes’ majors range from general studies to pre-med. Senior offensive lineman Rudy Niswanger plans to go to medical school. While balancing the tough curriculum and football practice, Niswanger has never received lower than an A in his college academic career.
“We don’t have anyone else on our team that’s never made a B in college,” said former football coach Nick Saban. “The guy is bright, a lot brighter than me. He’s not one of those guys that’s a specialty player.”
Some students believe athletes receive advantages over their peers. The Cox Communications Academic Center for Student-Athletes provides academic advisers and tutors during study hall and additional tutoring sessions as well.
“Our goal is to develop them into independent productive human beings,” said football academic adviser Jim Rost. “We take freshmen in and work them into the transition from high school. With juniors and seniors we try transitioning them into a life skills programs — internships, interview skills. By the time they leave LSU we want them to be best prepared to compete in the job market.”
Roger Grooters oversees all academic advisers. He joined the LSU staff as executive director and has worked at revamping the academic center into a more ethical environment.
“I came into LSU when there were many violations with academic advisers and take great pride in where the academic center is now,” Grooters said. “You hear rumors of students making accusations of student-athletes. Nothing has been brought to my attention of illegal or inappropriate actions. If there were I would deal it. I stand for integrity.”
Athletes have the same obstacles as other students have when it comes to scheduling and teachers. They do have priority scheduling for the sole purpose of time constraints with practice and games. Rost said the other major way to help athletes is to give tests to find teachers who are compatible with their learning techniques.
“Our scheduling is in the interest level of the student,” Rost said. “We do some testing for background to see their strengths in learning, and we do research to see how classes are set up. We look at teachers and see the way they teach. We would place visual learners with teachers who use a lot of power point. The main misconception is we throw them into classes, and we don’t. We talk to them about their options.”
Rost added that athletes still have obligations on their own as students. And for the elite 33, they have met these obligations on their own and should not be labeled, he added.
“What we are trying to do is make the athletes more respected as students,” Rost said. “In high school many are wrongly labeled as ‘dumb jock.’ We are trying to erase the label and empower them to students who other students look up to. I think we are going in the right direction.”