Dear Mr. Davenport, Director of Athletics at Oklahoma Baptist University
As you very well know, Oklahoma Baptist University competes in twenty-one varsity sports at the NCAA Division II level. Every year, approximately 500 student-athletes from all around Oklahoma, the United States, and the globe come to Bison Hill to compete on one of those twenty-one teams. As a member of the Bison baseball team, I’ve been very blessed to meet and play with a diverse group of guys. Over the first couple of months that I’ve been at OBU, however, I’ve noticed a barrier that student-athletes place between their team and other students. Generally, most student-athletes solely hang out with their teammates of the sport they play. Now it’s important for teammates to build chemistry with one another, but at the same time it causes a feeling of division among other students. The most effective way to solve this problem is by putting student-athletes in a position to feel unified with the rest of the university through activities that form and strengthen relationships, student clubs and organizations, and groups that encourage growth in Christ.
Over the course of a school year, student-athletes spend a majority or their time with their teammates. In offseason, they might spend an hour or so with their teammates, plus another hour or two in study hall with them. Whereas during season, they could spend up to a full day or two with their teammates on a road trip. When athletes aren’t on the field,
College is a time for young people to develop and grow not only in their education, but social aspects as well. One of the biggest social scenes found around college campuses are athletic events, but where would these college sports be without their dedicated athletes? Student athletes get a lot of praise for their achievements on the field, but tend to disregard the work they accomplish in the classroom. Living in a college environment as a student athlete has a great deal of advantages as well as disadvantages that affect education and anti-intellectualism.
Sport’s are an aspect of life that affect societies across the globe. Athletics affect everyone's life, whether that be playing the sport, watching games, or hearing about a sporting event. There is a big difference between playing an individual sport and players relying on their own athletic abilities versus a team sport when members of the team rely on their teammates to complete each individual's specific responsibility to reach the team's goal. Team sports bring people together in countless ways, and they teach many life skills for the athletes that participate in them. Some of these skills include communication, teamwork, discipline, work ethic, dedication, leadership, and numerous more that will help them in their personal and work
The University of Oklahoma is a four year Division 1 public university located in Norman, Oklahoma, and is home to the Sooners; “Boomer Sooner”. The University of Oklahoma’s Womens Softball team won the 2015 Women’s College Softball World Series, and their football team is ranked 1st in the Big 12 rankings. Kansas State University is a four year Division 1 public university located in Manhattan, Kansas, and is home to the Wildcats; “EMAW - Every Man A Wildcat”. Kansas State University has just recently added a new Women’s Soccer program! I have a 3.4 GPA, I participate in Link Crew which is a program offered at Campus High School that helps with freshman orientation, and basically helps many different freshmen sculpt/decide the path’s for their futures based on their decisions now in high school. I have played soccer for 13 years, and am currently playing club soccer at Sedgwick County Soccer Association for the ‘99 Wichita Cheetahs Elite, and I also play on the girls Varsity soccer team at Campus High School. Kansas State University is a better choice and fit because it is in-state, there are many degrees, and options to choose from, the acceptance rate is higher than the University of Oklahoma’s, and there are minimal standards on applying/enrollment requirements, and there are ways to earn many scholarships whether it be through academic scholarships or earning it through athletics, and the tuition and
Sports was a part of my life growing up - whether it was attending games with my family to support the Huskies at Rentschler Field or Wolfpack hockey games at the Hartford Civic Center or even being part of a basketball team since before middle school, I have grown to love the atmosphere that sport brings. Whether it was assisting my Mom coach in our town’s T-Ball league or working with the disabled or even with the students at Wish Elementary School, through sports, I have been able to build a solid sense of a wider community. It is not just about the game itself but it is about what happens in-between and after. It is the indescribable bonds that form between
Students in college have to balance many activities: school, friends, work, health, and everything in between. Being a student athlete adds a whole new workload. Not only do student athletes have to balance class, studying, and homework, but they also have workouts, meetings, events, games, and of course, practice. Not even mentioning a social life, a student athlete 's daily schedule is already packed full. Typically, a student athlete wakes up, goes to a workout that is followed by classes, then another workout, and finally time for studying and homework.
They are many times attending universities because it is a stepping stone en route to a career as a professional athlete, just like an accounting major is studying in order to be recruited by an accounting firm. The lifestyle of a student-athlete is quite different though. A student-athlete must attend practice for 10 to 20 hours per week, travel to games on most weekends during the season, and at the same time, keep up with an academic workload comparable to that of a student without commitment to athletics. But unlike ordinary students without athletics, student-athletes must also many times care for families and spouses. Actually, approximately 24% of student athletes are married, and of that 24%, about 62% have children. Of the students without their own spouses or children, many must care for parents and siblings.
OKLAHOMA CITY--The fourth-seeded West Virginia University baseball team lost an 11-10 heartbreaker in extra frames against the third-seeded TCU Horned Frogs in the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark on Sunday afternoon.
Athletes spend most of their free time practicing and playing in games. They miss quality time with family, which going a long time without seeing them is very hard on people, and I know it is for me. They all could just go home during the weekends, but they choose to stay at school and practice with their team because they dedicate their time to the sport,
One of the biggest challenges that Vanderbilt Athletics must face is that each of the sports within the Vanderbilt Athletics organization can sometimes feel like an entirely separate organization. Additionally, the level of resources and attention that these sports receive can greatly vary. An example of these differences can be found in the difference between the Vanderbilt Football coach’s
College was a dream that was made possible by playing more than one sport. College is an easy transition for these athletes because it’s not that much different from their high school lifestyle. The routine is easier for them, they can manage their time with homework, practices and a social life at a stress free cost because of their time management skills. In the early stages of an athlete’s recruitment, many coaches are drawn to them because of their multi-sport abilities. Making friends comes easy to those athletes and they have the ability to become close to all of your new teammates and with the coaching staff. Athletes can go into this season ready to play, healthy body at hand, and fully confident in their success in this year. This was all possible because they played multiple sports. It laid down the path to their dream. And like everyone else they did everything possible to help them achieve
The focus of this paper will be to describe the experience I have had with a good boss. For the past five years, I have had the opportunity to help coach a high school baseball team. My boss at this job is the sports director at the high school. This paper will examine how Mr. brown exhibits the correct values and leadership for his position.
Throughout my five years continuing on my sixth; I had never became so close to any sport/club offered at my school. Our team is considered a “family.” We stand by eachother through times of doubt and reminisce on our good memories. We enjoy the company of one another. Every Friday night before our Saturday morning races, the team would all sit down together and have a nice meal together. The team is a close knit group even with students joining and graduating from the
From the first beep of the alarm clock to the last click of the light at night, a college athlete is constantly busy. Between practices, classes, weight lifting, classes again, followed by another practice, and studying all being a normal day, college athletes have a lot on their plate. Not to mention the games or meets every week and the traveling to and from events that is added to their schedule during season, time can quickly run out in a single day. Knowing that this is going to happen, college athletes still sacrifice everything to live those four years of craziness simple because they love the sport they play and find
While high school student-athletes invest a lot of time and energy into their sport, the collegiate lifestyle brings a new level of difficulty that many incoming freshmen can find intimidating and overwhelming at first. In addition to being under more pressure to perform on a larger, more competitive stage in front of a more expansive audience, they must also deal with the every day challenges that normal college freshmen face: homesickness, transitioning into a more demanding academic workload, and creating a new social network. College athletes have to have their routines extremely time focused, and make time management essential to their daily lives.
Walking around campus, you can see how small Graceland is. So, you would assume that everyone knew each other personally, but many times all that is known about a person is their face. Graceland always talks about being an all-inclusive campus, and boasts about all of the activities that they put on throughout the year. The school does a great job bringing people onto the campus but once they are here, there is some separation between student groups/teams. It is not in hostility, there is just not enough connection between them. And it is hard to participate in all aspects of campus life when there are so many scheduling conflicts. So, there becomes a barrier between student athletes and those involved in other ways around campus.