The end of a sport’s season is bittersweet. While you’re happy that all the stress is finally over, you’re going to miss doing what you love every day. Whether you’re on a college team, in a sport club, or an intramural athlete, here are five realizations all college students who participate in sports understand at the end of the season.
1. Your initial thought is “now what?”
You invested countless hours into practices, workouts, and games over the course of the season. Now that it’s all over, you find yourself wondering what you are going to do with all this free time. Sure, there are actions you can take during the off-season to prepare for when your season starts again, but this still leaves you with some extra free time.
2. Free time: you are both excited, yet sad to have it
Good news! You finally have more time to relax and finish your homework. Your schedule isn’t packed so tight the in the last few weeks of school and you’re excited to put that time towards some other aspects of your life. You vow you will use this extra time to get assignments completed ahead of time and clean more often (which may or may not actually happen). While you are happy for the extra hours during busy weeks, you know in the back of your mind it’s because the season is done.
3. You miss not seeing your teammates every day
You were in the habit of catching up with your friends at practice and looked forward to talking about your days while putting in some work. Now that the season is over, you actually need to plan in order to hang out. You soon realize this takes a lot more coordinating than your definite, scheduled practices.
4. You’re extremely sad about having to put away your gear
Your shoes and workout clothes have been a staple in your wardrobe for months. They were always at the front of your closet because you wore them so much, but now they’re packed away on the top shelf. Nothing was more painful than realizing the shoes you’ve run, played, or danced in for hours now share the same space as your extra set of sheets and Christmas decorations in May.
5. You start to motivate yourself
Since practices are over, you don’t have set times to work on your skills or have your other teammates to motivate you. While college athletes continue to have off-season workouts and practices, those in club and intramural sports are officially done when the season ends. You start putting aside your own time during the off-season to make sure you’re not getting too rusty.
The end of a sports season, no matter what level you are at, can be met with happiness and sadness simultaneously. Despite these mixed emotions, you are still excited to get back to the sport you love the next season.