As I take a step back and reflect on my 10 years as a student-athlete, I’ve realized that the most valuable lessons I have learned weren’t about how to dribble a ball or sink a free throw—they were about life. Sports shaped me into the person I am today, teaching me discipline, resilience, and balance.
Unless you’ve lived it, you don’t see the uphill battles student-athletes face every day: late-night study sessions after away games, the juggling act between practice, work, and class, or the pressure to perform both on the court and in the classroom.
Even though I’m no longer competing, I carry those lessons with me, and I want to pass them on to younger athletes. I want them to see both the beauty and the challenges in playing a collegiate sport, and to understand how the lessons from the game can serve them long after the final buzzer.
Time Management and Discipline
Time management and discipline could be in separate categories, but as a student-athlete, I quickly learned you can’t have one without the other. Some nights during my freshman year, I’d get back from an away game and it was past midnight by then, and I’d forget to set my alarm for an early morning class. Other times, I had to find Wi-Fi on the road to submit an assignment before the deadline.
That’s where discipline came in. It wasn’t just about scheduling my time—it was about staying consistent to the schedule I had built, even when I was tired or tempted to procrastinate.
Over the years though, I built healthy habits, whether it be waking up early for class or work, submitting assignments days ahead of time, and planning out time to get to the gym no matter how busy the week was.
These habits didn’t just help me survive as a student-athlete—they’ve stayed with me, giving me an advantage in both academics and everyday life.
Teamwork and Communication
Through sports, I have excelled my communication both on and off the court. I was lucky enough in my freshman year to have a great coaching staff at Danville Area Community College who taught me my voice is important, not just for myself but for the people around me.
While we were learning defense and screaming “I got your man! I got your help! Ball! Ball! Ball!” they made me realize that it was to help my team and the others around me. The same goes for anywhere else. Whether it is working on a project and needing to be a leader or communicating at work that I need help, I now know the importance of being around a team who’s going to have your back and you do the same for them.
Perseverance
I think one of the biggest challenges I struggled with was getting up after I had fallen down in anything I did, socially, academically, and athletically. For my first two years of college, I lived 1,013 miles away from home, about 14 hours away.
I was homesick and trying to find that balance that student athletes face while in college. While I stumbled, I had teammates and coaches who helped pick me up, both literally and figuratively.
While helping me, though, they taught me how to also pick myself up on my own. Coach Erika said it best: “Life is scary outside of basketball.” Even though when we didn’t have one another, we were mentally strong enough to pick ourselves up.
We are going to have to handle challenges, whether it’s balancing work, school, or our social lives. Competing collegiately has acted as a guide to get me to where I am today.
For any athletes who are freshman coming into college or even a transfer, just know that everything will be okay. Take the good with the bad and just enjoy it while you can.