Athletics at Case

NewSpartanFan
Fri, 20 Jul 2012 10:48:28 +0000

Agree, Proudpatriot. Ultimately, how well a student-athlete does in the classroom is up to him/her. However, knowing that, usually, student-athletes have less free time to study than a typical student (because of all of the practices and games in which they participate on behalf of the college), schools and, sometimes coaches, have in place mechanisms which put these athletes in study halls, etc. at certain times.

For example, of the ~10 colleges that my son considered, I visted about 8 of them with him (unfortunately, my wife made the Case visit with him) and in the majority of the visits, when we met with the coaches, they made it clear that there were set times (in the evenings, etc.) when their players had to be in study halls (with sign-ups sheets, etc.) in order to make sure that the lesser free time they have is being put into good use. Obviously, they could sometimes opt out if they had reasons to be elsewhere, but this helped these young athletes “crack the books”.

It makes a lot of sense that universities, and coaches, would be very interested in athletes’ success in the classroom since the most important measuring stick of these schools is how students perform in class and, with sports teams specifically, how student-athletes’ GPA’s compare with that of other colleges’ equals. That is why many have these study programs in place.

So, again, I agree with Proudpatriot that, ultimately, it’s the student-athlete’s responsibility to do the work and get the good grades. However, it’s also in the school’s and coaches’ best interest that these young men/women succeed in the classroom. Many times it’s these study programs that I heard many of the university coaches that I met with talk about, that gives the student-athletes the edge to succeed both on the field and in the classroom.