Pressure is something that every college student has to deal with. Between classes, homework, papers, finals and all that other fun stuff, it’s just a part of life. Then there are student-athletes. Trying to balance school and a sport can be overwhelming, but that doesn’t stop thousands of college athletes. They themselves through it every year, because it means another year playing the sport they love.
Pressure is nothing new to student-athletes. They deal with it constantly, on and off the field. Before they even get to their season, they have to get good grades to make sure they are actually eligible to play come gametime. School comes first, that is why they are student-athletes.
“As a college student athlete, it’s all about having a balance,” Kate Lannon, sophomore elementary and special education major and forward on the women’s basketball team, said. “I’ve learned to organize and write out everything with due dates… Prioritizing my homework and studies is a huge help.”
Pressure is also an intrinsic part of sports, especially in-game. Voshon Mack, a freshman basketball player at Cabrini, is no stranger to pressure packed moments on the court. On Nov. 20, Mack hit a game-winning, buzzer-beating shot against Rosemont University, lifting the Cavaliers over the Ravens 85-84.
“The game winner happened so fast I didn’t really have time to think,” Mack, a forward and a business management major, said. “When I caught the ball my first instinct was to finish the play.”
There are other pressures in sports that people often don’t think about. Darian Caputo, a softball player at Cabrini, is the only senior on the team out of 14 players, giving her a unique role on the team.
“It’s frustrating at times, because I don’t have that person going through last year things as well,” Caputo, an infielder and a psychology major, said. “My teammates have done an excellent job in making me feeling part of their group no matter what class/age.”
There are other pressures still that athletes have to deal with. Coaching changes can be hard on any college team, but given certain circumstances, it can be devastating. In 2015, ahead of Caputo’s sophomore season, Cabrini’s softball coach Mitch Kline stepped away from the team, as he was battling cancer at the time and couldn’t continue coaching. He would lose that battle, passing away in September of 2016.
“[Kline] essentially sold Cabrini to me, even though it meant switching states when I had no intention of coming off of Long Island,” Caputo said of her former head coach. “He was just someone who made you want to smile and have a good time. I was excited to see where our season would’ve lead if things could’ve been different.”
Pressure comes with being a student-athlete, both on and off the field. They know how to take it in stride and use it as motivation to perform well in everything they do.
