Putting in on the line today, the only day that counts for high school athletes wanting a college scholarship

Few people understand the demands you encounter

What happened yesterday, last week or last year pales in comparison to what you do today.  As a high school student-athlete,, you are faced each day with the prospect of falling behind athletically and academically. And if you get this key point figured out, you can survive the recruiting wars tomorrow.  Coaches will notice and they will home in on you.

No one, except you, can truly grasp the pressures which are on your shoulders, the aspiring college athlete. Even many teachers and administrators, not to mention fans and parents, are clueless as to what is on the line every day for you, the sole possessor of this genuine, deep desire to play sports at what most likely will be the penultimate level of competition for your career.

In the classroom, it is a constant battle to stay on top of reading, homework, class lectures and instructions in not one or two, but a three, four or five core course schedule. Onlookers too frequently forget the enormous time required to excel academically. Squeezing in a study moment here, working on a calculus problem there, taking in epic works of literature while riding in a noise-filled bus under dim lights, absorbing historic dates and events during halftime of another game, and yet somehow being alert enough to construct cohesive paragraphs or dissect grammar when you get home from long practices and longer games, night after night.

Then there is the physical toll.  Leaving textbooks on the bleacher or in your locker, you have to make a sudden, but sure, adjustment into a world where you are challenged to battle for the right to be on the court, the field or the track.  It’s where focus is essential and maximum effort is demanded.  You fight fatigue, ward off injuries, battle for your position and grind it out during drills and taxing competition.  And this is the fun part of your day.

Yet, it has to happen. Some fall the wayside, unable to withstand the stress, the pain or the work.  And in the end, what a prep student-athlete did over his or her shoulder, yesterday that is, counts for little.  That only allows you to be where you are at this moment.  It’s what you do and accomplish today, this very day, that counts. Slack off and you fall back. Lose concentration and you make mistakes.  But, press forward, fight through it and you may pass a competitor too tired or lazy to go those same extra steps. So really, there is no choice. You must push ahead, snuff out the distractions and consider everything unnecessary in your path as insignificant white noise. It’s the life you’ve elected. It has to be done. And the only question remaining is, Will you do it?