Back in Business- #Whyd3

Thanks to my boy Dylan Richter and his amazing blog z list celebrity, he has inspired/annoyed the hell out of me enough to get back on the bandwagon and blog some more. Even with his highly demanding and important internship, he has still somehow found time to get mentioned on the NCAA website. But enough about the ginger, I want to join the conversation about why Division 3 athletics. After living through it for 4 years, I think I can give a holistic view of why we do what we do.

Most people don't know that any scholarships Division 3 athletes receive have absolutely nothing to do with athletics. None. I could have quit before I even stepped on the field my freshman year and I still would have received my scholarship, based on academic merit, community service, and financial need. I've even talked to graduates from my school who said "Really? I didn't even know we had a football team." Needless to say we aren't exactly packing the stands for our games. No we don't have 100,000 fans screaming at the top of their lungs anticipating our every move. But what I like is that when people are cheering for us, they actually KNOW us, not just our name. They are the people in our statistics class. They are the people we serve on student government with. They are brothers and sisters in Greek organizations. 


When I would tell someone I play college football, they would always ask "So are you going to try for the NFL?" I still don't know how I had the self control to keep myself from laughing in their faces. During my playing days, I was over 300 lbs. and around 5'10, even though some of my teammates say I'm under 5'7 jokingly. Playing in the league never even once crossed my mind, nor does it cross the mind of any D3 player. There may be 1 or 2 players from football every year that at least get a look by NFL scouts, the most recent and famous one being Pierre Garcon out of Mount Union, now starting receiver for the Indianapolis Colts. But that never happens. NEVER. We play because we love the game, we love our teammates, and we love having the opportunity to continue with one of our passions for a few years longer. 


Graduating has been a very surreal feeling. For the last decade, I have been a football player. Thats has been my identity- everything I did had to do with football, even when I was in other seasons. But as I went through my last semester at school when I was no longer a football player, I realized that being a D3 athlete taught me a great lesson: being a football player was only a small part of my bigger identity. I was a double major in the business school. I owned a business for two and a half years. I was an active member in a fraternity. I was an intramural sports supervisor. If I had been an athlete at a D1 school, almost all of those would be out of the question. Our kicker was a walk-on at UCLA, but transfered to Washu because they wouldn't let him study what he wanted to. It's a 24/7/365 job, leaving you no time for anything else.


Our athletic department conducted focus groups asking non-athletes what they thought were the differences between them and athletes. The most common response? They said we are students who happen to also play a sport. They even went as far as saying they respected us even more because we took all of the same classes they did, professors expected the same amount and quality of work, while we also had to throw in a sport on top of it all. We didn't get to sign up for classes early. If we missed work for a game, we made it up. We even had a group of 10 players who took a midterm in a hotel conference room during one of our road trips. But we did get something out of it- 1 credit hour per semester. One credit hour for anywhere between 30-40 hours a week, depending on how far a road trip was. Not quite fair, but it was better than nothing.


I write this post not because I want pity, praise spoken about the character and willpower of D3 athletes, or even a shout out from Dylan. I write this for my fellow D3 athletes, the people who went through the same thing as me. We are a proud bunch, and I know we will be better off in the longrun. I'll end this post with something that has been on my facebook quotes since I was a freshman. I'm not sure where it came from, or how I came about it, but I think it describes the answer to #whyd3 perfectly.


Why We Play D-III Athletics-
It's not about getting a scholarship, getting drafted, or making SportsCenter. It's a deep need in us that comes from the heart. We need to practice, to play, to lift, to hustle, to sweat. We do it all for our teammates and for the student in our calculus class that we don't even know. We don't practice with a future major league first baseman; we practice with a future sports agent. We don't lift weights with a future Olympic wrestler; we lift with a future doctor. We don't run with a future Wimbledon champion; we run with a future CEO. It's a bigger part of us than our friends and family can understand. Sometimes we play for 2,000 fans; sometimes 25. But we still play hard. You cheer for us because you know us. You know more than just our names. Like all of you, we are students first. We don't sign autographs. But we do sign graduate school applications, MCAT exams, and student body petitions. When we miss a kick or strike out, we don't let down an entire state. We only let down our teammates, coaches, and fans. But the hurt is still the same. We train hard, lift, throw, run, kick, tackle, shoot, dribble, and lift some more, and in the morning we go to class. And in that class we are nothing more than students. It's about pride--in ourselves, in our school. It's about our love and passion for the game. And when it's over, when we walk off that pe court or field for the last time, our hearts crumble. Those tears are real. But deep down inside, we are very proud of ourselves. We will forever be what few can claim... college athletes.

Until Next Time,
The Big Man