From my time here at Luverne, I’ve seen how important athletics are in this county. My only advice for those who want to play college sports is make sure that you absolutely love it.

From my experience, if you aren’t self-motivated you’ll never succeed in a college atmosphere. Not that you won’t have successful moments, but if you can’t motivate yourself to put in the effort to get better then you’ll struggle to get better.

A lot of people think that athletes have it easy, that everything is handed to them. In some situations, they might. But for the most part, athletes put in the work to deserve some things.

Playing a college sport is just like having a full-time job. You have at least 20 hours a week of practice, let alone studying for your classes that you have to pass to play and putting in extra work to perform at your best. It can be exhausting. I know from experience.

I was talking with someone once and she told me, “I wish my parents had pushed me to play in college.” But I disagree with her statement. If you don’t have the desire to play in college then you’ll never have the work ethic to take extra reps when there’s something else on campus going on.

There are so many events that I had to miss out on during my college career because I had softball practice or an athletic event I had to attend. Sometimes, it wasn’t even that I had an event, but I was simply too tired to get there and have enough energy for workouts in the morning.

Now, I don’t want you to think college athletics isn’t the best time, because I wouldn’t trade a single moment for anything. I love the people I got to meet, the experiences I have and the ability to play the sport I love for as long as I could.

I just want people to understand it’s not for everyone. Sometimes, someone’s career won’t go past high school and that’s OK. That doesn’t mean you are not a great athlete. It just means you didn’t want to make the commitment to play in college.

If you do decide on your own and commit to playing, don’t take a single moment for granted. For everyone, athletics will end at some point. Some people, very few, will be lucky enough to play professionally. But most will end their careers after college.

I just had to end mine and would do anything to go back to four years ago and play again. It was hard and it took over my life. I couldn’t join other clubs or do much else between athletics and school. So, if you’re planning on joining a sorority or getting involved with student government, you need to really sit down and decide what you want the most. All in all, no matter what you decide, your life will be OK, with or without athletics.

 

Chelsea Eytel is an intern at The Luverne Journal. She can be contacted at (334) 335-3541 or chelsea.eytel@luvernejournal.com.