The time may have come to dispose of the myth that athletes spend too much time pumping iron and focusing on sports to do well in school. At least, the time has come at Western.
An NCAA report released winter quarter shows Western student-athletes are graduating at a higher rate than the general student body.
Sixty-nine percent of student-athletes who were freshmen in the 2000-2001 academic year have graduated, while 66 percent of the general student population who entered the university at the same time have finished their degrees.
The 69-percent graduation rate for athletes is higher than the 55-percent national average for Division II schools, and five points higher than the average for the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC).
In addition to a higher graduation rate, the GNAC named 12 members of the Western women's rowing team to the GNAC At-Large academic team.
Leading the list of 33 student-athletes is Western women's rowing team junior Audrey Coon, who has a 3.95 GPA as a Spanish and elementary education major.
Senior volleyball player Tiana Roma said the high graduation rate does not surprise her because athletes are generally dedicated, driven people.
“Athletes work their butts off to become the best at their sport and it transfers over to school,” she said.
Kamena said the ability to set goals and complete schoolwork comes from lessons athletes learn by participating in sports.
“Athletes are dedicated people,” Kamena said. “They’ve had to develop that dedication to reach this level in their sport, and some of the things in terms of time management also pay off in their studies.”
Western Faculty Athletics Representative Brent Carbajal said Division II schools focus on creating a balance between academics and athletics, and Western’s emphasis on success in the classroom applies to all students, including athletes.
Carbajal said Division I schools sometimes offer special tutoring for athletes struggling in their studies, but Western athletes have access to the same study resources as everybody else.
Kamena said student-athletes have a difficult time because they must set aside time to complete homework while committing time to practices, team meetings, games and working out. Time-management skills become crucial to whether athletes succeed in both aspects of university life, he said.
Head volleyball coach Diane Flick said when recruiting players she looks for strong time -management skills and academic dedication in addition to athletic abilities. Occasionally she will take a chance on a student who may not possess strong off-court qualities but not often.
Student-athletes must maintain a 2.0 grade-point average while taking 36 credits per year to be eligible to participate in athletics.
Student-athletes also have additional academic requirements other students do n't, such as having to declare a major before the start of their seventh quarter and showing continual progression toward a degree.
Junior volleyball player Angie Alvord said she had trouble budgeting time during her freshmen year because she only wanted to be on the court or have fun with her friends when she wasn’t practicing. After she had a time management meeting with Flick, she said she found adhering to a schedule helped her balance school and athletics.
Some sports, such as football, set aside study hall times for freshmen, so they develop the habit of studying and also for students whose grades fall close to a 2.0.
Senior linebacker Taylor Wade said having a limited amount of time to complete homework forced him to buckle down and do his work because he knew he would not have more time to finish it.
“Since we don’t have as much time in the day, we learn to take advantage of the time we have to do homework because we can’t procrastinate,” he said. “We have to be efficient with our time.”
This is especially true during the football season when players typically devote more than 30 hours per week to team activities, working out and watching game film.
Traveling to games sometimes forces athletes to miss class, but professors usually accommodate students by allowing them to turn assignments in early or late and having them take tests when they are available, Carbajal said.
Western faculty are usually flexible to provide student athletes with the opportunity to succeed academically, but how they do that is up to the discretion of each professor, Carbajal said.
While it seems as though it would be difficult to study while traveling, Alvord said the volleyball team typically gets a lot of homework done on trips during the season because they have nothing else to do on the bus, plane or in their hotel rooms.
The high academic marks achieved by athletes is a testament to the effort put in by Western’s coaches, professors and student-athletes, Carbajal said.
“We’re pleased with the performance of our student-athletes in the classroom, but we’re always looking to do better,” Kamena said.
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