“You play a sport in college!? Wow!”

This is a phrase I eventually became accustomed to hearing from family and friends throughout the years I played table tennis in high school and college. And like many of you, this is also a phrase I took for granted.

When you have been an athlete your entire life, from grade school to high school, rotating between multiple sports or focusing much of your time on the one sport you really love, athletics becomes second nature; and by the time you get to realize, this sport is a part of your every day life. You train, run, and practice all in preparation for your games. Because it becomes part of your daily activities, you take for granted the amount of time and effort you actually put into it. For instance, on a Tuesday night, when your friends are cramming for an exam you all have the next morning, you instead suit up, grab a snack, and head towards training. You try to study your notes between potholes or underneath a public transportation’s dim lighting. You train for two plus hours then return to which you should equally do, academics. Other than the limited studying on the way to class, you have just spent almost half-the-day doing something other than academics. Will you continue to study and still pull off a decent score on the test tomorrow? Yes, because you need to keep a minimum units to earn to participate in varsity athletics.

However, this does not phase you. You wake up the next morning, take the exam, go to the gym and come back to your room to study for another test. The athletic/academic cycle is a continuous stream of events that consumes much of your time. Compared to most students who do not participate on an athletic team, you sleep less, you devote many hours to practice and your body aches from continuous training and competition. And here at our school, an NCAA division college which abides by the very correct belief that academics come before athletics, you find yourself at a crossroads. Yes, academics should and do come before athletics, but most athletes will admit that the two combine as one.

And though we do not realize how much of ourselves we give up to play, we play because this is who we are. We play because we love it. Not just because we are here on an athletic scholarship. Not because fans wait outside the Rizal Center for a picture or an autograph. Certainly not because any of us plan to be interviewed by Solar Sports sportswriters. We play because that is what we do. We came to this school to learn, grow, and achieve; our athletic experience along with our academic experience has done just that.

Athletics at our school has taught me three things. First is time management. Always manage your time and more importantly, manage it well. This is why we bring out our notes on the road or anywhere when it calls. Then there is determination. We put our minds and bodies to the test every day as athletes. We train, practice, and compete. Whether it is during that last 100 yard sprint, that final 2 minutes in the second half, or game point, we never give up. And finally, sportsmanship. Winning is obviously fun, but losing gracefully is just as important, not only on the court, but also in life.

What does it take to play sports and be in the running for athletic scholarships?

Grades. Do you have the grades or test scores to maintain your grades

Ability. Do you have the athletic skills that a coach values?

Motivation. How hard are you prepared to work to get a scholarship?

At the end of the day, realize that we can’t win everything, whether it is that perfect score on an exam, that athletic competition against a rival team, or that post-graduate job we desperately wanted; we have already won so much as a student athlete. We are proud and we are a College Student Athlete.

So you play a sport in college!?