Good Advice:
Tips On Adjusting To College Athletics As A Freshman Student

An interesting article authored by Kayla Frappier of Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota published in September 2008 (The Concordian) focuses on the difficulties faced by first-year college students seeking to make the jump from high-school to university level athletics. Among the most prominent issues identified in Frappier’s piece are the following:

• Athletes in their freshman year at college generally will find that the base level of the average athlete at the university level is vastly different from that found at secondary schools. Notes one interviewee, Lex Lunde, a freshmen wrester at Concordia, “In high school you had participants that did something just to do it, [whereas] here [at college] no one is in it just to [participate], everyone is here because they love the sport.” Tim, Evavold, a freshman football player at the university, concurred, adding, “College athletes have more of a love for the sport they are playing. When athletes go to college they are playing the sport that was their favorite in high school.” Thus, the level of competition, whether in playing against an opponent or even simply practicing with members of one’s own team, tends to be become much more pronounced, while a relative focus on individual success within a team dynamic becomes a more prominent motivating factor for performing well at the collegiate level.
• Time Mosser, a volleyball coach at Concordia, notes that athletes will often struggle with the increased speed of a given sport – the pace at which it is played and the physicality required to stay fresh at all points throughout a given competition.
• Students oftentimes find it challenging to balance the demands of athletic performance with the rigors of academics in the classroom.
• Time management as whole becomes a much more integral part of the collegiate experience.
• Strengthening oneself mentally becomes just as important as preparing oneself physically, both on and off the playing field / court.

In order to address factors such as those outlined above, Frappier offers the following pieces of advice, as provided by both student athletes and coaching staffs interview for the piece:

• Use fellow teammates and coaches as a sounding board to voice frustrations and find solutions to problems encountered as a first-year student-athlete. As it relates to the former, don’t buy into the commonly-held belief that upperclassmen are “the big, intimidating people that they were in high school,” as forwarded by Concordia’s Alec Holden in this piece. Instead, use their prior experiences as freshmen as a valuable source of experience and knowledge from which you can learn.
• “Work hard and don’t lose focus of why you’re playing the game,” says Ashley King, Concordia basketball player. “Dedicate yourself everyday to the sport and come into it with goals that you want to achieve.”
• Be in peak condition even before the season start and emphasize the mental aspects of preparation as well as the physical.
• Don’t get discouraged if you’re not performing at the level you thought you would; the very nature of college athletics is such that it oftentimes forces maturation before success if found out on the field or on the court.
• Have high expectations of both yourself and the program.
• Familiarize yourself with academic-support resources on campus to aide in adjusting to the demands of the college classroom.
• And, finally, but perhaps most important, as noted by Coach Mosser – be prepared to have fun and enjoy the process of becoming a better athlete at the next level!