Life in the day of a Student-Athlete

Sarah Brown, Outside Hitter. Linn-Benton Community College.

It was right about 5:55 PM, the glass doors on the south side of the activities center’s only hallway swing open and let in a gust of air and springtime sunshine.

In with the wind and sunshine comes Sarah Brown, she is in a speed walk towards the north end of the hallway to meet with her volleyball coach, Jayme Frazier.

As she hustled past me, I decided to wait a few minutes to see if I could get a couple minutes on her way out to talk to her about Volleyball and the day in the life of a student-athlete. A few minutes later, I hear footsteps in the distance getting closer and closer.

Thankfully, she responded to my request with “sure I have a few minutes before I have to go take a test”... It seemed that I was already seeing the fast pace, busy, aspect of her life that I was just preparing to ask her about.

“Life as a student-athlete is definitely not as easy as I make it look” she said jokingly.

I proceeded to ask Sarah about how she copes with the busy schedule she has while maintaining good grades.

“I have learned to prioritize my tasks throughout the day and find time to get my school work done on time”,

says Sarah.

“I spend a lot of time in the library when I am not in class, it puts me in a zone to get work done, which is what we all need sometimes.”

I then asked her a bit about how she prioritizes her volleyball goals and balances those with her school work load.

In response, Sarah states,

“Well now that we are in off-season, school takes precedence over everything else. At least for the last few weeks of the term that is, with finals and all”

“I find time to work on my volleyball goals pretty often, we all have weight training class together and work on improving our game in that aspect, and Jayme (Coach Jayme Frazier) is always available and willing to help us out whenever we have time.”

After only talking to Sarah, a returning outside hitter, for a few brief minutes, I managed to get some good insight into the everyday life of a Linn-Benton Student Athlete.