By Thomas Edmundson
Managing Editor
Reynolds High School has 37 sports teams with over 400 student athletes, and – to borrow a line from the NCAA – most of them will be going pro in something other than sports. A select few, however, do have that special ability that can take their game to the next level: college.
Last year’s senior class was full of talented athletes. That class alone now has athletes playing college tennis, golf, basketball, baseball and swimming. While the rules of the sport don’t change in college, the atmosphere is completely different from high school.
The shift from high school to college is a different experience for every athlete. Michael Borton, a golfer at Furman University, said, “The transition has been awesome, but definitely tough. College players are so much better than what I saw in junior golf. It’s a lot of fun, though, and I have had a great time traveling and competing at a higher level.”
As for Whitney Knight, a women’s basketball player at Florida Gulf Coast University, she said that, “The transition was slow and difficult in the beginning, but once I figured everything out and how college basketball operates, I transitioned pretty well.”
One of the biggest changes athletes see in college is the level of competition. College sports teams are made up of the best athletes around the country. While in high school, a team might have one or two star players, but a college team is a hodgepodge of players who all excelled in athletics in high school.
“The most difficult part about playing college tennis is the competition,” said Dillon Segur, who now plays tennis at Liberty University. “Everyone is so good, and it’s at a completely different level than high school tennis.”
Dale Fetterman, a tennis player at La Salle University in Philadelphia, added, “College tennis is also a lot tougher competition-wise and there is more pressure on you to get the victory to help your team.”
To keep the level of play so high, college athletes are required to go through more vigorous practices. High school sports teams usually practice for a few hours every day after school. This may seem grueling for some, but practices become longer and more difficult when at the college level.
“Practices in college are much more intense and require a greater amount of focus,” Knight said. “The speed of the game was a big adjustment for me. The pace does not compare to high school.”
Anna Blair Bullock now swims for Davidson College after swimming at Reynolds for four years.
“The practices at Davidson have not been more yardage than my club practices in high school, but they have been harder in intensity,” Bullock said. “We do a lot of underwater breath control and fast swims from the blocks, which is different.”
Added Borton: “Golf practices are generally the same. The difference is just the amount of time I spend practicing with the team. It’s definitely a lot more hours in college. We also have workouts a couple mornings a week before class.”
With practices taking so much time out of the day, organization is a very important skill for college athletes to master.
“The most difficult part about playing college basketball is staying organized and on top of classes while traveling and trying to find free time to have a social life,” Knight said. “It is not hard to juggle sports and practices and classes if you are organized and use your time wisely, but if you don’t, it can become overwhelming.”
Even if athletes focus on being organized and prepared, achieving success on the field and in the classroom can be very demanding. Bullock said the most difficult part of being a college athlete is balancing all of her activities.
“Davidson is an incredibly academically rigorous school, and when I’m practicing almost 20 hours a week, it can be challenging to get all of my work done and find time to sleep,” Bullock said.
This juggling act may be mentally and physically pressing at some times, but most athletes say it is worth it. Bullock enjoys “the bond that I share with my teammates,” and Segur said the team is “like a family figure in your life.” Knight likes the travel, the NCAA tournament, and how “playing on TV is really exciting.” For Borton, the best part of playing college golf is “all the free gear.”