NCSA Blog

We all know the phrase, “career-ending injury” — an injury so severe, one is not able to competitively participate in his or her sport in the future.

Former Ohio State fullback Aram Olson suffered navicular stress fracture last summer, forcing him to permanently hang up the cleats this season.

But I don’t think he would necessarily consider it a career-ending injury. From Steve Wiseman’s article on The State.com:

After a series of meetings last spring with doctors, including a specialist, the reality hit home and he moved on. Having his career end at age 20 didn’t come easy.

“I came to grips with it a long time ago,” Olson said this week. “At first, (it was) kind of shocking. Now I see I have a whole new opportunity.”

That opportunity is a career in strength and conditioning. Ohio State is honoring his scholarship, and Olson is pursuing a degree in sports and leisure studies with plans to attend graduate school for exercise science.

This season, he will assist the team’s strength and conditioning staff to gain experience.

I want all of you to take two ideas from Olson’s story:

1. As I always harp, make sure you pick a school that you actually want to be at. As Olson and thousands of other student-athletes can attest, certain things can happen — knock on wood — that could end your playing days. When considering what school to play at, you need to ask yourself, “Would I want to go here if I wasn’t playing my sport?” If the answer is “No”, you need to start looking at other schools.
2. It’s cliché, but when life gives you lemons, make lemonade! Make the best out of the situation, and explore other opportunities that normally wouldn’t have opened up. Look at it this way: Had Olson not get injured, he wouldn’t have had the opportunity to get some real-world experience in his desired career path. To be blunt — your life doesn’t stop just because you’re playing days have.

It’s safe to say that Olson took both of those points to heart.

“I’m still happy with my decision,” Olson said. “Even with the whole career-ending injury and everything, I don’t think I could have set myself up better for the rest of my life and my career.”

Career-ending injury? I think it’s more like a career-beginning injury.

 I was recently reading a few posts from blogs that I frequent and the topic that athletic scholarships are not guaranteed for four years but rather a renewable contract that is signed each year at the discretion of the head coach came up a number of times.  I suppose this information is new to many parents and student athletes, so I encourage you to read more about the specifics, but I would rather focus on a different aspect of this topic.

There are certain reasons for a college coach to not renew an athletic scholarship that most reasonable people would find understandable.  Failing to meet academic requirements, legal issues away from the field, and poor work ethic on the field all seem like logical reasons for a coach to decide against renewing a scholarship.  The most controversial and least publicized reason for a college coaching neglecting to renew the scholarship is the student athlete simply not being good enough to play for that program.  The reason this issue is controversial is because coaches do not take advantage of it enough!

The reality is that college coaches are fearful of negative publicity when they decide not to renew a scholarship which will frighten potential recruits in the future.  Rather than experience this backlash, the coach will often times become brutally honest (or manipulative in my opinion) with the athlete and let him or her know that the chances of them playing anytime in the near future are very slim in the hopes that this will discourage the athlete from staying with the program and maintaining their athletic scholarship.  To me this seems cowardly. 

***Warning…What I am about to write might upset many people***

I believe college athletics would be better served if the college coaches would simply tell the student athlete they are not good enough to play at their program and they have decided not to renew their scholarship.  While this might upset the student athlete, at least they will have an opportunity to pursue a school where they will have a realistic chance to play.  I realize the downside to what I am proposing, but I ask the naysayers this; is it that much worse than what is currently being done?  Wouldn’t we all prefer the coaches actually be honest with a student athlete rather than give some distorted version of the truth in the hopes that the student athlete will do them a favor and leave the program on their own accord, thus saving their reputation for future recruits?

 I just read an article about a student athlete who signed a Letter of Intent to attend Marquette University solely because he wanted to play basketball for the coach there. Unfortunately, the coach took a better job at Indiana. When this happened, the student athlete wanted to get out of his contract, which was completely up to the University if he could or not. It took longer than it should have, but finally the student was released from his contract.

The article went on about how the rule should be changed and the Letter of Intent should not be so binding. If the coach is allowed to leave, the student athlete should be free to leave as well. I agree entirely.

The article was a good article and the issues talked about are definitely prevalent, but the student athlete should have never put himself in that situation in the first place.

What I mean is why choose a school based on the coach. That’s like choosing a car because of its color. You really like it one day but the next day it breaks down and surprise! you are stuck with a useless hunk of pretty metal.

There is so much more that goes into attending a college and playing a sport that going to a school because of one person simply doesn’t make sense. When it comes to the point where you are seriously being recruited, of course the coach is going to seem perfect for you… he/she is telling you everything you want to hear because they want you to go to their school. He/she may run the perfect offense or their past winning record is something you want to continue and be a part of, but the coach didn’t do that all on his own.

He/she had to have the athletic department’s support or even enough pressure on them to make it happen, assistant coaches on board, the right players who are academically eligible, and the list goes on. That is a lot of people that contribute to success that the student athlete is not taking into consideration.

And even if the student athlete takes all of this into consideration and not too much about the school itself, what if they have an injury? Or what if the coach you are so fond of brings in a stud recruit that takes your spot? What if your team has a losing season?

There are so many things that could happen, you want to make sure you like where you are at. Just like a car. You are stuck with that set of wheels for years, if it does not with stand you and your driving habits you can’t return it. So you make sure before you make the investment that it suits you.

Your college decision is one of the most important decisions you will ever make. There is more than the coach you should consider!

The real kicker of the whole story was the student athlete who only wanted to play for this particular coach signed with another team. The coach moved to Indiana and the student athlete signed with Kansas.       

Every year on the center stage of collegiate sports, we hear the story, often told by television announcers, of the touching tale of the courageous walk on.  Visions of Rudy instantly come to the forefront as the journey of the underdog warrior starts to unfold.  “He was never recruited out of high school by any of the major programs . . .” says the announcer during his crescendo to the game breaking play.  “He has waited his whole life for this moment, battling disappointment after rejection.”  It is heartwarming.  Life is fair again. That could have been me.

There are few stories that compare in nature.  There are fewer that compare in occurrence.  The closest relative to Rudy would be the 71 year old retired truck driver who on his last few dollars cashed in on millions playing the random pick’m game at the local gas station.  The only difference is, that story happens more frequently!

For the serious competitor, walking on to a collegiate athletic team can be compared to earning a medical degree and then working as a custodian.  You both work in a hospital but unlike all of your classmates, you’re not actually doing what you trained so hard to do for so long.  Most collegiate athletes have played their sport since before they could remember, years and years, always starting, usually better and often in the spotlight.  To cash in a lifetime of hard work and natural talent for a dream that was forged from within a child’s perspective seems foolish.

Take football for example.  There are over 800 colleges that offer football as a varsity sport.  Most sports fans in this country can name up to fifty.  In baseball there are over 1000 colleges that offer the sport.  How many can you name?  There are numerous opportunities to explore if the desire to actually play exceeds common ignorance and childhood fantasies.

Walk-ons, just like custodians in hospitals, have vastly different experiences than the scholarship players.  First, the ceremonial National Letter of Intent signing day - that does not happen.  Next, the preferential class scheduling - no.  The second, third, or fourth pair of coaches’ eyes watching you to make sure that you’re taken care of - not so much.  You are a necessary tool to help the real players practice, rarely taken serious, rarely awarded a scholarship and sparingly shown respect.  Rudy was a great film but I hope it is not your story.  Below is a short video of how USC treats its potential walk ons.  There are a few questionable language choices in this clip so do not watch if you will be offended.  USC Walk On Clip

In summary, if you work your entire life to achieve the goal of becoming a college athlete, find a place where you are wanted.  Find a school where you will play and make an impact.  Go somewhere that will set you up to have a great experience while you earn your degree, an environment that will help provide you with teammates for life.  Step outside of your comfort zone and learn all you can of what is out there.  You just might find something that is priceless.

Injuries are not fun.

OK, there’s the understatement of the year. Injuries are downright painful. First, there’s the actual pain associated with getting injured. Second comes the post-surgical pain. Then, there’s the pain of rehab.

But what probably causes the most pain in the injury process is the feeling that your dream of playing a college sport has, in all likelihood, come to an end.

Amber Jones knows all about pain. An all-state basketball player at Hazlewood High School in Town Creek, Alabama, Jones tore both anterior cruciate ligaments – her left knee as a freshman and her right one as a junior. Tearing one ACL is enough to end a career; tearing two pretty much seals your fate.

But no one told Jones that. Rather than packing it up and putting college basketball in the basement, she persevered. Thanks largely in-part to her father’s motto from the movie “Gunsmoke,” “If you lie and you don’t quit, you’ll succeed,” Jones seems destined to do so.

Of course, Jones lost a couple off potential offers because of the injuries. Yet, she is still being recruited by many Div. I schools, including Auburn, UAB, LSU and Tulane.

The point I’m trying to make is that nothing’s over until you say it is. When one door shuts, if you try hard enough and look hard enough, you’ll be able to find another. Until the final signing date passes, you’re the only one who decides when you stop being recruited, not an injury.