Many athletes of all different kind of sports dream about playing on national television and in front of anywhere from 10,000-100,000 screaming fans. All while the athlete’s tuition, housing, dining, and books are paid for. This sounds like the perfect life for an aspiring athlete, but most people do not realize the work behind the scenes that it really takes. For starters, you must go above and beyond with your training during your high school years, and perform to the best of your abilities to even be offered a division 1 scholarship. Say you do receive a scholarship offer from a division 1 school, are you ready for what is to come? Be ready for your alarm to go off at 6:00 every morning, usually earlier, and be at morning weight training/conditioning by 6:30. Next, you have breakfast at 8, which you are required to have, due to the team’s meal plans. At 9:00 a.m. you have your first class of the day and will last until 10:30. Then you have your second class of the day starting at 11:00 a.m. and lasting till about 12:30 p.m. Now it’s time for practice, but wait, what happened to lunch? You rarely have time to sit down and eat, so you must grab a snack out the door heading to practice. Practice will last from about 1:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m., and you are so excited to finally relax for the day, but wait you have team meetings scheduled till 6:00 p.m. Once team meetings are dismissed, you will finally get to eat some food. Once you get back to your room, you realize you have a paper due at midnight and begin your essay. At around 11:00 p.m., when your paper and all of your studies are complete, you finally get to wind down and go to sleep.

So again I will ask you, is playing collegiate sports right for you? For some people, this is the lifestyle they want to live and want the financial assistance that comes with it. For others, the daily life is too much to handle and it will cause stress, anxiety, and even depression. Make sure to choose what is best for you and your future while deciding upon becoming a student-athlete.