I can remember when I told many people in my high school what university I had committed to for tennis, their responses were not pleasant. “Oh, so you weren’t good enough to play anywhere else?” “So, you’re basically playing club tennis then.” I can understand why many people might have this preconceived notion. After all, D3 tennis players do not get the perks of D1 or D2 players, who often receive athletic scholarships and the plethora of free gear, travel, and academic perks that comes with them. However, there are many D3 programs, DePauw included, who train like a D1 program but focus more on academics. That’s what I was looking for in a school because after all, that is why I am here–to get an education.
What really bothers me though is when people downplay the hard work that many D3 teams put in. When you think about it, playing at the D3 level can be extremely difficult because all of our motivation is intrinsic. Of course we want to represent our school well, but we are internally motivating ourselves to play a sport we love, and for what? None of us will make it on the pro tour, none of us are receiving athletic money, and none of us are receiving free gear or extra academic tutoring for missing class. Yet we are training nearly as hard as higher level programs. We are literally only playing the sport because we have a love for it and could not see ourselves stopping after the high school level. There are no extrinsic motivations for us.
Regardless, D3 athletes work incredibly hard. Not only do we have to focus on excelling in the classroom as well as on the field or court, but since we go to a school with such a culture of overachievement, most athletes are also involved in an overabundance of other extracurricular activities. For example, I somehow figure out how to get good grades, play a college sport, be in a sorority, be in an honors program, and be a producer and writer for the student media. This is a daily grind that can wear anyone down mentally and physically. We can balance it all, and like I said, we don’t get any rewards for doing so.
So before you go bashing a D3 athlete, claiming they aren’t good enough to make it to a higher level, or they really don’t work that hard at all, walk a day in their shoes!