If you take 20 hours out of your week do you still have free time? Add at least a single four or five hour game. How about now? Then add a 12-unit class schedule and you would be hard pressed to find time for anything at all.
That’s the life of a student athlete.
“It’s really hard and stressful, but it’s worth it to play football, a sport I love and am really passionate about,” said Socrates Rodriguez, a DVC football player learning to juggle school and his duties to his coaches and teammates.
Football players are required by Big 8 Conference regulations to have at least a 2.0 grade point average and be a full-time student with a total of 24 units for a calendar year.
Head Football Coach Mike Darr expects his players to be at practice on Mondays and Wednesdays from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Players also have weight lifting two times a week from 1 p.m.to 2 p.m. and film meetings, also twice a week from 2:10 p.m. to 3:20 p.m. This is not including additional meetings for special teams players, which are players who are on the field on punt, field goal and kick coverage.
But now students on the football team having difficulty with their coursework are in luck.
Offensive coordinator Ryan Byrne has started a group called the Student Athlete Success Program which provides tutoring for athletes who don’t have time to go to the tutoring center during its open hours.
The program was started by Byrne, along with the help of Athletic Director Christine Worsley, who is also the dean of physical education, athletics and dance.
Byrne comes from an athletic background. He completed a master’s program at the University of California at Berkeley called “Athletes and Academic Achievement” with his focus on student athletes transferring from junior colleges and their difficulties getting into a four-year institution.
Both Dean of Counseling Terry Armstrong and counselor Lupe Dannels have been great resources in Byrne’s quest to provide better support to student athletes, who are required to have an Education Plan on file with the college and meet with a DVC counselor once a semester.
“That way they make sure the student is on track to receive their degree,” Byrne said.
Armstrong has made it so that counselors, who are difficult to book at DVC, are available to the athletes, while Dannels helps when it comes to funding for tutoring.
Gilbert Rocha, admissions and records senior employee, also helps to make sure athletes are meeting the requirements to continue playing during their short time of eligibility at DVC.
Rocha tracks the athletes’ grades and makes sure they never drop below the minimum standard, while also calculating team GPA and other academic statistics.
“They’re on a two-year time period here,” Byrne said. “They have to be out in two years if they are playing. It’s difficult to get them the classes because they have half their day taken up with class and practice.”
When attempting to juggle classes and sports, there are several classes that a student athlete can take, starting with the orientation class that uses the help of counselors to assist incoming freshman with the demands of being a student athlete. The program is available to all athletes who need help in lower division English and math classes.
The Student-Athlete Success class is a way to help guide athletes having trouble with their schooling and makes their class work more relevant to their life.
“It’s really hard to keep up with school work because you’re so tired from being at school and practice really tires you out. Sometimes I feel like there aren’t enough hours during the day,” football player Rodriguez said.
Student athletes also have a heightened responsibility to turn forms in on time, whether it is financial aid or any drop forms, because the scholarships that many athletes receive are based on their academic performance.
“Every issue on this campus is magnified for these guys because they have such a small window of time to do what they need to do,” Darr said.
Coaches teach their players that they can’t take these programs for granted because they don’t have much free time.
“Their time in between classes isn’t spent out on the quad or surfing the internet, we give them quizzes on game plan,” Darr said.
He said all coaches try to ensure that their students are aware of the responsibilities they have both on and off the field.
“People see the game of football and think we just run and hit each other but it is a lot of work,” Darr said. “They aren’t just studying school work, they’re studying what we have for them as well.”
Contact Gerardo Recinos at [email protected]