Controlled Chaos

The alarm goes off at 6 a.m. as Caroline Berg searches through the darkness of her bedroom to find the phone. Berg opens one eye, looks at the time and thinks about hitting the snooze button for a few extra minutes of sleep. It’s so tempting to just roll over and forget about the schedule ahead of her for the day.

Sleep can wait. This is what the Northville, Mich., native signed up for when she decided to attend the College and ride for the equestrian team. She says she couldn’t do it without the support system she’s found in both her team and the Honors College.

Still, the demands of being a student-athlete at a Division I school can be a grind: the early mornings, the six-days-a-week practices, the weight training, the team-building exercises, the travel and the competitions.

And that doesn’t even include the classes, the studying and the papers due during a normal week. “There are some days when you just want to stay in bed,” says the rising senior.

A political science major with a part-time job to boot, Berg makes a quick breakfast of yogurt and eggs, pours herself an iced latte and then heads out to her car for the 45-minute drive to the team’s stables in Huger, S.C.

“In the winter, I usually get to the stables about the time the sun rises,” she says. “Sometimes, it’s still dark when we start to ride.”

Josh Keifer’s day begins in a similar fashion: trying to beat the traffic from downtown Charleston to Mount Pleasant for his morning run with the cross country team.

“I push myself to get out of bed because I know what’ll happen if I hit the snooze button,” says the Fort Worth, Texas, native.

Between coursework, practices and games, Naylee Cortes, a rising junior guard on the women’s basketball team, figures she spends between 50 and 60 hours a week in her capacity as a student-athlete. It’s like having two full-time jobs.

Days can become a blur of classes, practices and stops at Starbucks for a quick hit of caffeine. During the season it’s pure mayhem, but Cortes wouldn’t have it any other way; she thrives in the chaos.

“If I weren’t as busy as I am, I wouldn’t know what to do,” she says. “I’d probably get bored very quickly.”

Berg, Keifer and Cortes have become experts at juggling and balancing the life of a student-athlete. They have to be good at chaos. There is no choice but to find a way to succeed on and off the field so they can give themselves and their teams the best possible chance of winning.

Time management is crucial to survival. To keep up with her busy schedule, Cortes has three daily planners to outline her day, week and month. Her agenda can become so hectic that she has each day mapped out, written down minute by minute.

“If you are failing to plan, then you are planning to fail,” says the political science major from Bogotá, Colombia.

Each night before her head hits the pillow, Cortes will take a quick look at her planner to see what’s on the horizon for the following day. Sometimes, when she finally drifts off to sleep, she dreams she has lost one of her three planners.

“It’s really a nightmare,” she says. “I would freak out if something happened to my planner – it’s so important for keeping up with what my day is going to be.”

All three student-athletes say a social life is crucial for their mental health and overall success.

“You have to make time for yourself and your friends,” says Keifer, a rising senior, who is double majoring in computer science and exercise science. “There must be a balance in your life. It’s important to make friends outside of the team.”

Most of the student-athletes at the College are far from home, which means they might not have the in-person support of their families. That’s why they create their own support systems with their teammates and coaches.

Spending hours each day together and traveling hundreds of miles across the country creates an unbreakable bond, which helps keep them going during those long hours of practice and studying.

“I didn’t know anyone on the team when I got here, but they have become my extended family,” says Keifer.

All three agree that they would not be as successful as they have been without the help from the College’s academic support services.

The Athletics Department offers a “Paws to Claws” summer program to help incoming student-athletes navigate their way during their first year of college. Student-Athlete 101, a non-credit 10-week fall seminar, is another transitional support program.

“The most successful student-athletes are organized and have good time-management skills,” says Kate Tiller ’07, senior associate athletics director for student-athlete success. “Because they are organized, they are not distracted by outside noise and can concentrate on being a student-athlete.” – Andrew Miller