When I went out to get this story, I was hoping to uncover some kind of sports hierarchy, with football at the pinnacle and smaller sports like rowing and rugby forming the base of the pyramid, kind of like the sturdiest four cheerleaders of the squad—they perform just fine, but everyone knows the crowd’s eyes will be drawn to the top.
I envisioned those professors with basketball season tickets being slightly less lenient with those missing lecture for a cross country meet. I saw headlines perhaps touting news of a pushed deadline for a hockey player, but not a member of the women’s soccer team.
However, my journalistic dreams of full-on controversy were dashed after I spoke to three student athletes at the “base of the pyramid” and they informed me the athletic department at UW-Madison is ostensibly one big happy family.
“It’s definitely easy for a sport like rowing that we have to get lost in football or basketball because those are the revenue sports and we have some great programs,” Monica Whitehouse, a junior and captain of the women’s open-weight rowing team said. “But the athletic department does a really great job of including all athletic teams.”
“I’ve actually had professors that have been great, they really enjoy working with us,” Austin Cox, a senior on the men’s distance swim team said, further disproving my theory. (Well…shit.)
Yet throughout this interviewing process, a different story began to take form.
“Every once in a while I think it would be cool if we could do a swap for a day where somebody who wasn’t a student athlete who’s cynical about [them] and how they just slack off [in school] and all that stuff could try it,” Emma Allmann said, also a junior on the women’s open-weight rowing team. “Because it doesn’t feel like I’m slacking off. It feels like I’m trying really hard.”
It’s doubtful anyone could justify calling Allmann’s schedule one of a slacker. In addition to approximately 20 hours a week of workouts, she also holds two jobs and still has to find time to do her homework. She is majoring in English. The other two student athletes echoed similar situations.
Whitehouse does not work during school, but as a captain of the rowing team she also has to make workouts for captains’ practices twice a week in addition to doing officially sanctioned training and completing a major in Psychology. Cox is double majoring in Finance and Marketing, has swim practice about 25 hours a week and works at a Madison startup business, Swoop Search.
“When people get to know how involved I am with swimming and these other activities they really get an appreciation of how much effort we have to put in as athletes,” Cox said. “[But,] for people who don’t really know athletes personally I think athletes get that stigma for being able to just breeze through school without putting in too much effort into academics, which isn’t true.”
Yes, student athletes do get tutors. And free printing. And their own academic advisors and a special study space under Camp Randall, but Allmann said all this is compulsory to do well in school while they represent our university on the field/water/rink/what have you.
“I don’t think people really realize how necessary it is,” she said. “It’s hard to give 100 percent in school and give 100 percent to the sport as well. It’s a part-time job really.”
And some aspects of school are also more difficult due to their athletic involvement. Whitehouse detailed a few occasions where she had to take an exam on a bus or plane because her professor wanted it done at the same time as those taking it in class.
“[It’s] not ideal because, I mean, your teammates are rowdy,” she said. “I’d much rather be able to take my exams with the classes.”
But she’s not complaining, and neither are the others. They’re just involved in what they love with a little more physical strain and perhaps a couple of bonus perks.
“There are some athletes that may take advantage of the system,” Cox said in a moment of earnestness. “If you have an elective that’s not very important to you … you might elect to take an easy class. But who wouldn’t?” Probably true.
In the end, we all share at least one title. Student.
