Being a young adult pursing a higher education at any sort of college or university has endless opportunities that help them better enrich their lives. Many young adults in college pursue this by joining clubs, taking part in school offered extracurricular activities or events, joining a fraternity or sorority, or by many other means. However, for a select few of young adults who are attending college, continuing to pursue athletics from their days of adolescence is one of the more extreme things that college students do in order to keep themselves active and involved in their school. Although playing a collegiate sport of any sort is rewarding, as student athletes are able to perfect their abilities on the field as well as meeting new people and making new friends, it also has its challenges, which were expressed by Alex Lloyd, a junior here at Millikin University who is a part of the football team.

To Lloyd, although being a student athlete can be challenging, participating in a college sport offers numerous ways for student athletes to enrich their lives in a multitude of ways, one of which being structure. According to Lloyd, being a student athlete “provides a sense of structure, especially for younger student athletes.” Having a structural element in one’s life is something that most college students need, in order to make sure that they are being kept in line and performing to the best of their scholastic ability. By participating in Millikin University’s football team, Lloyd is able to ensure that he along with his fellow football players are both achieving on and off the field, as the team is constantly being evaluated on their own physical capabilities (both concerning body and dietary health) along with a scholastic sense, as members of the football team are required to attend study tables in order to ensure that the team is achieving good grades.

Additionally, one of the major components of being a part of a collegiate football team for Alex Lloyd is the camaraderie that both he and his team mates achieve both on and off the field. In a statement provided by Lloyd “athletes get to surround themselves and compete every day with guys who have the same goals as them, and make each other better on and off the field.” By participating in a collegiate sport, athletes are able to form bonds with college students from around the world. From countless hours of practice, conditioning, and through actually playing the game on the field, student athletes are able to better their playing abilities with each other, further tightening the bond. Additionally, through the countless hours that they spend together, student athletes are better able to get to know each other, leading to enriching friendships that can last for a life time. Nevertheless, although being a student is extremely rewarding, enabling any student athlete to better themselves on the playing field, as well as creating bonds that can last a life time, there is still a great amount of time management that has to come into factor for both the team as well as scholastically.

Further according to Lloyd, when asked what are the challenges of being a student athlete, time management is a big concern for him, as Lloyd stated “Although it provides a sense of structure, which helps with academics, it also is time consuming, so athletes have to make sure academics come first while still meeting an standards set by their team.” This is exceptionally important, as, if any student athlete is not managing their time to their best ability, they can fall both athletically and scholarly, thereby negatively affecting the team.