Life as a student athlete is full of inaccurate stereotypes, heavy workloads, and a lot of time devoted to the sport– but is playing still worth it? I contacted University of Windsor volleyball player Sam Clements to talk about these topics, and get the real rundown on what it’s like being a first year engineering major and a volleyball player: here’s what she had to say.
Zelia: How do you manage the school/life/sports balance?
Sam: A lot of my interactions come from sports, and because of COVID I can’t go see friends as easily as I could before. Having friends who are also athletes lets me workout and practice with them, and it lets me be athletic and play my sport while still being social. Having a good support system and good friends in my major really has helped me a lot, because I can rely on people if I get stuck and need help. Volleyball takes up a lot more of my time than I initially thought it would, but I’m making it work.
Sam expressed how the workload as an engineering major is less than she initially expected. “I wanted to play volleyball and still be able to keep my grades up in engineering,” she said. As the first player on the team in engineering, she felt like she had something to prove.
Z: Do you think the stereotype of student athletes being less smart than others is true? How do you feel about this statement and how it’s portrayed in the media?
S: I don’t think it’s true, but it definitely is prominent in our society, especially since athletes tend to be in lighter majors to focus more on the sport, and that’s where the stereotype lies. I think that the fact that I am the first engineering major on the girls team says a lot about that. The easier programs are what make athletes “less smart” and that’s untrue; just because they aren’t in a major society deemed as one of the “best” majors, doesn’t make them any less smart.
Sam said she wasn’t prepared for the workload of the sport: the team meetings, workouts, 5 practices a week, and volunteering. They all came as a shock, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. “It’s more of a commitment than just playing volleyball,” she said, “I never used planners or calendars until this year because I am so much busier now.”
Z: What is being an engineering major like?
S: I never realized that I wouldn’t have homework every night that I had to do, like I did in highschool. The workload isn’t horrible, but the material is more difficult than I expected it to be.
Sam also brought up how this interview may have been different if school was fully in person, rather than online. During our interview she mentioned how her student and athlete lives are very different, as her engineering friends don’t understand her volleyball life, and her volleyball friends don’t understand her engineering life. Talking with Sam helped me understand a lot more of what goes on in the sport-based side of her life, and the academic side.
Our conversation really opened my eyes to how the life of a student athlete can be quite hectic, and how the balance between taking time for yourself and school work is important. This goes for anyone: taking time for yourself isn’t selfish! Ending the stigma that athletes aren’t always smart is important as well, because little do we know, behind the scenes their lives are a lot busier than one might think.