Thursday, July 22, 2010

Commitment

Commitment to the team - there is no such thing as in-between, you are either in or out.

-- Pat Riley

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Expectations Lose to Reality of Sports Scholarships


At youth sporting events, the sidelines have become the ritual community meeting place, where families sit in rows of folding chairs aligned like church pews. These congregations are diverse in spirit but unified by one gospel: heaven is your child receiving a college athletic scholarship.
Joanie Milhous, the field hockey coach at Villanova, said she recruited “good, ethical parents as much as good, talented kids.”
Parents sacrifice weekends and vacations to tournaments and specialty camps, spending thousands each year in this quest for the holy grail.
But the expectations of parents and athletes can differ sharply from the financial and cultural realities of college athletics, according to an analysis by The New York Times of previously undisclosed data from the National Collegiate Athletic Association and interviews with dozens of college officials.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Collegiate Basketball Academic Elite Receive Honors

The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) announced the NABC Honors Court, recognizing those collegiate basketball student-athletes who excelled in academics during the 2009-10 season. The NABC Honors Court recognizes the talents and gifts that these men possess off the court, and the hard work they exhibit in the classroom. In order to be named to the Honors Court, an athlete must meet a high standard of academic criteria. The qualifications are as follows:


1. Academically a junior or senior and a varsity player.

2. Cumulative G.P.A. of 3.2 or higher at the conclusion of the 2009-10 academic year.

3. Students must have matriculated at least one year at their current institution.

4. Member of an NCAA Division I, II, III, or NAIA Institution.
 
The following Kohawks have been named to the NABC Honors Court:  Cass Behrens, Dan Onorato, Fred Rose, and Alex Tatman.  Congratulations to these young men for their outstanding work in the classroom!

Monday, July 12, 2010

Athletic Scholarships

It’s Not an Adventure, It’s a Job

A few months into her first year at Villanova, Stephanie Campbell was despondent.

Stephanie Campbell received a $19,000 athletic scholarship to play field hockey at Villanova, but she said the demands of the sport and her schoolwork left her little time for a social life.

Many college athletes, like Elvis Lewis, who runs track at Villanova, start their classes early in the morning to accommodate training and game schedules. For events away from campus, teams can leave at 1 p.m. and not return until 10 p.m.

As a high school senior in New Jersey, she had been thrilled to receive a $19,000 athletic scholarship to play field hockey at Villanova University, a select, private institution outside Philadelphia. But she had not counted on the 7 a.m. start of every class day, something required so she could be in the locker room by noon to prepare for a four-hour shift of afternoon practices and weight-lifting sessions. Travel to games forced her to miss exams and classes. There were also mandatory team meetings, study halls and weekend practices.

She was overwhelmed.

I Wish I Would Have Known