Being a student athlete in college is an enormous time commitment. Being a regular college student itself is time consuming, but when you add softball on top of it you are looking at some very long days. During my first quarter at UCLA, there were some days where I would be out of my dorm room from 6 am until 8:30 pm. On the longest days, my schedule looked something like this:
6:15 am - 8 am : weights/conditioning
8:30 am -11:30 am : practice
1 pm -5 pm : class
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm : tutoring
The few hours of free time I had during those days was spent walking to class, eating, and taking naps on campus. When I finally got back to my room it was time to study. While these days are extremely fatiguing, colleges do offer a strong support system for student-athletes.
At UCLA we use an app on our phones called Teamworks that allows us to communicate as a team on time changes, as well as hold our schedule for us and set reminders. This app is extremely helpful because it helps us stay organized and on top of all of our appointments.
The level of time commitment we must give to softball puts us at a disadvantage to regular students at the school, but that is not an excuse to not be efficient while in the classroom. The athletic department here at UCLA recognizes the time commitment athletes give to our sport and gives us many resources in order to succeed academically. Our freshman and sophomore year we are required to take tutoring sessions for most of our classes. At times, going to these sessions is difficult because you are exhausted from the day, but they are always extremely helpful in the long run. We also have academic counselors we are required to check in with at least once a week who make sure we are staying on top of our schoolwork and help us to succeed as well.
At UCLA we also prioritize our demands in the order: family, school, softball.
If you are having a familial issue, first and foremost that is the priority. School comes next because when you commit to playing softball (or any sport) at any university, you are more importantly committing to going to school to that university and earning your degree. If you are not able to get the job done in the classroom, you will not be able to play softball.
While my schedule is exhausting at times, I am able to find comfort in the fact that I am not going through it all alone. When you play college softball you have an entire team as a support system behind you and you all learn to love the grind and fight through it, knowing that it will all pay off in the end.