By: Christopher Pierce

Being a student-athlete means balancing both academics as well as performance on the court, track, or field. But, how do students here at WVWC learn how to excel at both? 

In the NCAA students are required to maintain a 2.2 or higher in order to compete. The stress of athletes having mandatory lift and practice makes it a lot harder for athletes to balance this hefty schedule. In order to have a better understanding of how to do it, take advice from people that are currently juggling both of these challenges to understand what future student athletes can do to help with their journey. 

Chase Gora is a baseball player majoring in communications at West Virginia Wesleyan. “I found myself falling behind in the first few weeks of college with the increased work load and practice schedule. I then started writing everything I needed to do and when everything was due to better understand what to spend my time on” Gora said. He believes if student athletes write out their day to day schedule then they will be more organized and less likely to fall behind. Gora’s main point was he wants student athletes to be more aware of what time they have extra to complete their work as well as plugging in practice times to understand what free time you might have that week. 

Ava Cash is a track athlete majoring in psychology at West Virginia Wesleyan. “Staying motivated by going to workouts and staying on top of your work,” Cash said. Beginning college as a student athlete many people become overwhelmed with the amount of time practice takes up and start to become lazy with their school work.“If student athletes work hard in the class their coach will help them with their athletic performance” Cash Said. Cash wants students to understand that academics is the whole purpose of college and if athletes trust their coach and the training the only thing they need to worry about is their academic performance. 

Both Gora and Cash had a similar answer when addressing how they handle being a student-athlete. They both mentioned being well organized and mentioned planners for their schedule. Athletes that want to succeed in life should use this advice even after school is over.

Photos by: Drew Pierce