The price one pays

We have all seen athletes over the years that where exceptional. They put in the extra time in the off season, stayed in shape and were really good all-around players contributing to a team’s success.

For so many of these athletes their local fan base is wondering if they have the chance to play at the next level. There was a time when Community Colleges around the state had football programs where a tweener athlete could develop their talent and move on to a four year college and play whether it was NAIA, NCAA Division III, II, FCS or FBS having an opportunity was important.

The Junior College football programs are still around just not here. Many offer some type of assistance to help pay for education. But there are schools in Division II and III that don’t offer scholarships and there are a bunch of athletes that could play but can’t afford tuition especially at a private school.

So, a really good athlete needs to decide if their playing career is over and if it’s time to move on to adulthood to start a career.

I’m sure a lot of people are disappointed that they can’t brag that they know a local kid playing college sports. Knowing an athlete is not supporting or taking the time to travel to see them on the field even if it is just warm ups.

Getting into a game is even tougher.

There are athletes that have one focus and will work on one sport all year long. A small town kid is playing three sports and doesn’t have time to focus on just one until summertime.

The thing about sports after the high school level is at some point in time it becomes a business.

Two kids might get recruited for a position but who is going to get the playing time. Who is getting the reps in practice in order to get the timing down and the confidence up?

I will say that I’m not a huge fan of the transfer portal in most cases where a kid is opportunity seeking. But an athlete with talent who doesn’t get the playing time may need a change of scenery and the transfer portal is valuable for them.

There are kids that make the grade in a sport at any college level and have success but decide that they just want to be a student and enjoy the college life and focus on studies.

There is nothing wrong with that.

They certainly know that as a college athlete expectations are high for them to improve and reach certain goals. But what if the student athlete wants to attend a different school that offers a curriculum that they are really interested in pursuing?

The student athlete needs to choose and someone is going to be disappointed.

I visited with a guy that I met who was a good track athlete. He said that he was recruited by one school and spent a year there but wanted to focus on a different major that wasn’t offered at that school. He told his coach and his coach helped him transfer by contacting the track coach and highly recommending this kid to the new school athletic program.

He said that he couldn’t thank the first coach for all that he had done to make the move so smooth. He had great admiration for that college track coach.

Coaches need to be mindful of an athlete’s future and how they can help with their success. Not all athletes go pro.

I also heard the story about an athlete that was recruited to a big time football program and the kid was excited to play there because they had a renowned engineering program.

Now, this kid was pretty good but his coaches pulled him aside and said that if he was going to play on this team he was going to have to change his major because he wasn’t going to have time to watch game film, practice and study for his classes and he wasn’t going to be able to take a full load of classes during the season.

Now, he did stay at the school and would turn pro but he didn’t realize a goal that he had set for himself which is a shame.

Like anything we do there is a price to pay for ones future whether it is through athletics or not. But the athlete will need to decide that when the fun ends is it still worth playing the game.

— Dale Anderson is a sports columnist from Ritzville. To contact him, email [email protected].