The Review

Issue date: 11/13/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Michael LoRe Erik Johnson knows how to balance his work and football.

Two hours before the biggest game of the season is a great time for players to sit in the locker room making sure they understand everything in their playbook. It is probably not the best time to make sure they understand everything in the study guide for an upcoming test.

To be a student-athlete makes for an intensely hectic schedule and a level of stress generally reserved for people getting paid a handsome salary. For many student-athletes, away games become the toughest loss of time.

Junior linebacker Erik Johnson described a weekend with an away game as a frantic, but well-scheduled mixture of both football and academic plans that leaves little time for leisure.

"When you go on a road trip, you think of it as a business trip, so individually, you do what you have got to do to get your stuff done," Johnson said. "You don't really bring your homework. If you're motivated enough, you can get some stuff done when you're relaxing in the hotel or locker room before the game."

The university administrators understand the stresses of student-athletes' routines and try to accommodate the approximately 700 athletes as best they can. The 23 varsity teams are provided athletic-mentor coaches, who serve an intermediary role in helping the student-athletes balance study and training.

The mentors meet weekly with student-athletes and help them create schedules which fulfill their requirements as well as allow them to prevent class from interfering with practices and away games.

Political science professor Theodore Davis, Jr. has been teaching at the university for approximately 20 years and said the process of accommodating athletes has been seamless.

According to the university's Student Services for Athletes, assignments and exams are excused if professors are notified in the first two weeks of the semester the dates that would be missed by the students. Athletes are provided scheduling sheets they can show their professors in order to give them early notice.

Men's lacrosse head coach Bob Shillinglaw said school must be a top priority for students and he attempts to create an environment in which they succeed academically. He said to allow students to take exams in the past, the coaches arranged special transportation for students to games so they could attend after their exams. He said it is not always so simple, especially last year when the Hens made their deep playoff run.

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