North Carolina State University Athletics
Inside the Lives of Student-Athletes
4/1/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
April 1, 2011
Brittany Strachan, Asa Watson" style="float: right;" />RALEIGH, N.C. – Sometimes, NC State sophomore tight end Asa Watson walks by Harris Field and sees his fellow students participating in intramural sports and wonders: “What’s it like to have that much free time?”
He knows it’s probably similar to the feeling other students have when they sit inside a packed Carter-Finley Stadium on a fall Saturday afternoon and wonder what it must be like for Watson and his Wolfpack teammates to represent the school in a college football game.
For Watson, and most other student-athletes who are part of NC State’s 23 varsity sports, it’s a full-time job, a time commitment that many people don’t always realize when they are caught up in the passion and pageantry of a football game.
Watson and senior women’s basketball player Brittany Strachan used some of their rare free time on Thursday to speak to a room full of fellow students at the D.H. Hill Library, as part of the NCSU Libraries “Student All-Star” series. Their program, “36 Hours in a Day: The Real Life of the Student-Athlete,” gave a glimpse inside the life of a varsity athlete.
For Watson, who is in the middle of spring football practice at the moment, time is a precious commodity. For three days a week through the April 16 Kay Yow Spring Football Game, he and his teammates arrive at the Murphy Center around 6 a.m., go through practice drills, team meetings and breakfast, then head to class, followed by study hall. By the time school work is done, it’s usually midnight, time for a few hours of sleep before the alarm clock goes off again.
“The winter is the worst, because there are days when I get up at 4:50 in the morning,” he said. “I’m not really a morning person, so it is difficult for me. I have two more years to fight it out.”
To be sure, this is not a complaint. Both Watson and Strachan realize the awesome opportunities they have as student-athletes, not the least of which is a fully staffed academic-support center for student-athletes that assists them with their academic needs. They also know they make contacts and have travel experiences other students dream about.
But there is envy on both sides, because student-athletes lead a structured, well-planned life. Other students may be free in college to make their own decisions for the first time in their lives, but student-athletes generally have most of their decisions made for them and most of their time scheduled by coaches and academic advisors.
For Strachan, who has three times made it on the ACC Academic Honor roll and was recently selected for the ACC’s prestigious Weaver-James-Corrigan Post-Graduate Scholarship, coming to NC State was a dream come true. Both her parents are NC State graduates, and she knew long ago that she wanted to study computer science here.
The opportunity to receive an athletic scholarship and to play two seasons for legendary women’s coach Kay Yow were a bonus to her. But the Kernersville native got more than just an academic education during her four years of school. She will graduate in May with a degree in computer science and has applied to graduate school here.
“I was so excited to get here, but once I did, I found out that it wasn’t as easy as it looks,” Strachan admitted. “I didn’t realize there was so much to do as a freshman. You go to class, you go to practice, you go to study hall. I never really organized my schedule in high school. I just memorized it, and went to where I needed to go.
“When I got here, I found out just how structured your life is as a student-athlete. You have to be here at 9 a.m., there at 11, here at 1. You have to find time to eat. I was skipping meals and not getting much rest. Once I got the hang of it, though, it was much easier. Now as a senior, I’m really grateful for the hardships, because it has really helped me find out how time management works for me.”
Watson, from Rock Hill, S.C., has resisted investing in a good day planner so far, but he knows that he needs one.
“I wish I could say I keep a planner and schedule out my day and put little stickers on every day I have something due, but I don’t,” Watson said. “I probably should. I’ve learned I need to do things ahead of time, especially readings, instead of as they come. If I wait until the week before to start reading, I don’t have time.
“I probably should get a planner.”
The schedule can be hectic at time, but both Strachan and Watson try to balance out their lives with friends and hobbies away from the sports. Sanity requires it, even if they don’t have a lot of time to do outside activities.
“I have a big circle of friends,” Strachan said. “I made it a point when I got here to have friends outside of athletics. I try not to section myself off from anybody. Having said that, my closest friends are on the basketball team. We spend so much time together. We're like family.”
Watson said: “I don’t think I could stand just having athletes as friends. I need some people who are normal, who aren’t talking about sports all the time. I hate that we watch ESPN so much. I have a lot of friends outside of sports, and that keeps me grounded.”
Watson knew well what he was getting into. He comes from a long line of student-athletes. His father was a football player at Maryland. His mother was a synchronized swimmer. His brother Ben played college football at Georgia and Duke and is heading into his ninth season as a tight end in the NFL.
So he knew what he needed to do both athletically and academically to be successful in college.
“Sports was always a big deal in my family, but so were academics,” he said. “School was always emphasized. I always saw football as my vehicle to get an education. Everybody in my family had gotten an athletic scholarship. I was always told, if you want to go to college, you have to work hard in the classroom and work hard on the field.
“I’m glad I got here and got a chance to be a student-athlete, [because] a lot of the kids I went to school with who wanted to go to college didn’t have that opportunity because they didn’t work in the classroom. They didn’t put the same emphasis on their schoolwork as they did on their athletics.”
Both Strachan and Watson are grounded about their futures. Strachan knows she might be able to play professional basketball overseas, but she’s not interested. She wants to continue her studies and get ready to enter the professional world.
“Sports don’t last forever,” Strachan said. “My heart right now is seeing what else I can get into. I will always come back to the games. I might practice with the girls while I’m here, or go get involved in a pickup game at a local gym. I’ll always be a part of it.
“But I think I am ready to open up another chapter in my life. I’m actually quite excited about that aspect of graduating and seeing what else I can pursue.”
Watson is still looking at his possibilities. He’s fighting for more playing time with the Wolfpack and trying to decide what he might like to pursue professionally.
“I want to see what I’m good at and what I need to work on,” Watson said. “I’m really focused on doing my best here. I want to be great. I also know that sports don’t last forever. I would love to play in the NFL, but if it doesn’t happen, it won’t kill me.
“I know I have other options.”
• By Tim Peeler, tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
