Wednesday, January 28, 2015 // The Statement
4B
Wednesday, January 28, 2015 // The Statement
5B
K
evin Bain stared down at the blank
slate below him. With water dripping
down his face, the diver concentrated,
took a deep breath to clear his mind, then
pushed forward.
Then a freshman, Bain was on the road
competing for the Michigan men’s swim and
dive team, but his work for the Wolverines
that day was done. Mere moments after twist-
ing, contorting and testing his body in the
pool, Bain had to take a different kind of test:
the pencil-and-paper type much more familiar
to University students.
“It’s always a balancing act,” said Bain, now
a senior studying Business and Comparative
Literature. “We may have to meet with pro-
fessors or group projects at odd hours, take
exams on the road, just find different ways to
make it work.
“I remember coming in as a freshman and
mapping out my schedule, and it wouldn’t
all fit,” he said. “It’s kind of a tug-of-war, and
sometimes you have to make sacrifices, it
works out, but it’s always a battle.”
Such is life for many of the 934 student-
athletes at Michigan. The unique dynamic of
being among the nation’s best academically
and athletically means those that balancing
the two worlds is key. It’s rarely easy, fair, or
fun, but the University ensures that athletes
are given the opportunity to make it work.
***
Josh Bartelstein chuckles when thinking
back on his senior year. As a captain of the
2012-13 men’s basketball team, Bartelstein
helped guide his team to its first Final Four
and National Championship appearances in
20 years.
But, as a teaching assistant and senior in
Sport Management at the time, he remembers
not having quite the same success in the class-
room.
“I think I went to four classes a week for
that month,” Bartelstein said. “We were lucky
to have chartered flights, or it could’ve been
less. We were doing pretty much everything
on the road. We always had our books, tutors,
advisors — it was crazy really.”
The team was also lucky to have John
Beilein at the helm. Taking over the program
in 2007 — a program that hadn’t advanced to
the NCAA Tournament since 1998 — the coach
knew his team needed work ethic more than
talent to survive at Michigan.
“They don’t always just recruit the best
kids. They recruit kids that fit our culture and
can do what we do academically,” Bartelstein
said. “They need to be intelligent kids who are
ready to work hard, otherwise they’ll have to
go elsewhere.
“For some guys, it’s hard. It’s hard to write
a 10-page paper as a sophomore knowing that,
a year from now, you’ll make a million and a
half dollars playing in the NBA. That’s where
you see coach and his values kick in, because
to him, it’s not really an option. You might hear
guys complain. But it’s not either-or, it’s part of
the whole package when you come here.”
That package deal translates to other sports.
For Michigan hockey coach Red Berenson, it
presents decisions that no coach likes to make.
With nine National Championships and 35
NCAA Tournament appearances, the Wol-
verines draw interest from North America’s
most talented hockey players. But to make it at
Michigan, Berenson expects more.
“I’ve told kids, great hockey players, if you’re
not interested in school, don’t come to Michi-
gan,” Berenson said. “I’m going to make your
life miserable, and you’re going to make my
life miserable, because that’s not what we’re
doing here. If you’re coming here, you need to
be hungry for an education and to become the
best player you can, that’s what it’s all about.
“I’ll take hockey away from you in a heart-
beat if you aren’t doing what you’re supposed
to do in school.”
***
Berenson can demand the hunger, because
he had it too. Long before he knew he would
spend 17 years in the NHL or 35 years as a
coach, he was lacing it up for Michigan on the
ice and in the classroom.
A business student with an unknown hock-
ey career ahead, Berenson didn’t dare distract
himself. Even a seemingly small distraction
like a TV in his room could hurt him.
“We were more on our own,” Berenson said.
“We didn’t have the tutors, study tables, men-
tors. You were on your own, and don’t screw
it up. Now, you’ve got more structure, you’ve
got people around to keep an eye on you who
know what your grades are, tutors available.
It’s more structured for the student-athletes
to succeed.”
This structure is good, Berenson said, given
the increased demands on athletes. With
national media attention, millions of dollars
in funding, and thousands of fans attending
games, Berenson knows that his players face
greater pressure than he ever did
“There’s more demand on the student-ath-
letes today,” he said. “The season’s longer, the
workout schedule is more difficult than ours
was — you really have to balance your time and
manage things well.”
Even with the resources available, that’s no
small task. Business sophomore JT Compher,
a forward, alternate captain on the hockey
team and a second-round pick in the 2013
NHL Draft, finds that with games just about
every weekend, he is rarely available to partic-
ipate in group projects, a tough pill to swallow.
“The biggest challenge is my time con-
straints and meeting with groups,” Compher
said. “Sometimes, I might not be able to meet
with a group, but I make myself available to get
the rundown and do whatever I can to help.
It’s basically just managing my time when I’m
not at the rink.”
But not all athletes experience the same aca-
demic workload. According to a 2008 report
by the Ann Arbor News, athletes accounted
for about half of the students enrolled in the
University’s general studies program which
offers potentially lighter workloads and flex-
ible requirements.
Bain said this stems from NCAA rules about
declaring majors and progressing toward
degrees efficiently. These rules, designed to
ensure no one gets left behind, sometimes
backfire, pushing athletes to general studies,
Sport Management or other programs seem-
ingly tailored to their unique needs as stu-
dents.
“By the end of our junior year, we need to
have 60 percent of our major finished,” he said.
“If we try to switch majors and we don’t have
the requirements for that major, we’re ineli-
gible. Athletes don’t really get the option to
switch or change majors, so we may end up in
majors that simply fit what we have.”
Bartelstein has seen this incidental funnel-
ing firsthand. While former teammates such
as Zack Novak, Matt Vogrich and Jordan Mor-
gan sought degrees in business and engineer-
ing, many other teammates were steered away
from such disciplines, even if indirectly.
“You have to know what you’re signing up
for,” Bartelstein said. “If you want to do busi-
ness or engineering, no one will say no to you,
but you have to understand the time commit-
ment and degree of difficulty certain classes
present.
“You hear people at the academic center say
things like ‘take this class’ or ‘stay away from
this professor,’ but it’s not a forced decision.
They want to make sure student-athletes are
setting themselves up for success.”
That’s not to say it can’t happen, however.
Bartelstein also saw his team, even in its rise
to national prominence, make adjustments for
players’ academic commitments.
“They’re probably happy they did it now,
but there were times that they’d be missing
sleep the night before a game or taking tests
on the road,” he said regarding his teammates
pursuing less flexible degrees. “There were
times for a lot of guys where they were told
‘I’m not sure you can do this, but if you want to
put in the effort, we’ll make it work.’ So maybe
guys miss practices or we work our schedule
around exams, but Coach Beilein always made
sure that academics were a priority, and we
catered to that the best we could.”
Still, the numbers indicate Novak and the
like are a minority group. More athletes major
in Sport Management and general studies
than any other majors, despite the fact that
these programs may present less clear paths
to jobs after college. This is in stark contrast
to Berenson’s playing days, but the coach is
learning that with the right mindset, any of his
players can still find success.
“I think it’s fine, but I’d like them to pick a
major and then go for it,” Berenson said. “A lot
of them haven’t thought about it. They aren’t
sure what they want to do, and my take is if
(general studies) is what you want to do, then
make sure you do well so you can go to gradu-
ate school once you’re done.”
***
The type-casting expands beyond majors.
Just about every Michigan student knows
the ‘athlete look.’ There’s the green Gatorade
water bottle, the blue parkas and the matching
Adidas backpacks. And there’s the tired, quiet
expression, often accompanied with head-
phones and a spot toward the back of the class.
Regardless of their personal academic suc-
cesses, athletes can struggle to shake the ste-
reotypes associated with seemingly ‘easy’
majors, time away from class and cultural
norms surrounding athletics.
Throw in the fact that Michigan athletes
have a $12-million academic facility other
students can’t use, along with free tutors and
personal advisors, and the divide between ath-
letes and regular students is wider than ever.
“There’s definitely that stereotype,” Bartel-
stein said. “And some people at Michigan fit
the mold, but I think too much is made of it.
“I know with our team we had academic
conversations all the time, it wasn’t just go to
class and then leave. Our classes were a huge
part of our lives. We spent more time in classes
and studying than we did anything basketball-
related.”
Bartelstein feels that the stereotype is truer
for Michigan’s revenue sports: football, bas-
ketball and hockey. But Bain, who was recently
nominated to be a Rhodes Scholar and serves
as a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory
Committee, sees it discourage smaller-sport
athletes as well.
“People assume when I show up to class that
I’m just at Michigan for athletics, not academ-
ics,” Bain says. “It sucks that they’re already
judging us when they don’t know us, and kind
of missing out on the interesting people that
we might be.
“A lot of athletes don’t always wear their
varsity jackets, because we just don’t want to
deal with the stigma. It’d be great if we didn’t
have to worry about teachers or students judg-
ing us before they met us.”
***
As a former student-athlete, Kinesiology
Prof. Rebecca Hasson said she doesn’t try to
treat student-athletes any differently than
other students, but that the key to success
when teaching students is communication.
“The athletes aren’t any more busy than any
of the other students,” Hasson said. “Because
the communication lines are open, we will try
to work with one another’s schedules as much
as possible. We make certain that if a student
is doing poorly, we address it early on. Their
grades are submitted to the Athletic Depart-
ment as well as to our offices, so they need to
go to student services or come to office hours
immediately.”
Hasson tries to be sensitive to the unique
issues that arise for student-athletes, like
high-pressure times around championships
where a student could be missing weeks of
classes, but she believes student-athletes have
more to offer than just their athletic perspec-
tive.
“For the student-athletes, that is just one
identity they hold,” Hasson said. “The student-
athletes are probably a little more outspoken,
because they have those leadership skills on
the court and can bring that to class.”
“If you just treat the student not as a stu-
dent-athlete, but as a student who just has very
limited time but is as valuable to the class as
any other student, that will make for the best
learning environment.”
Hasson said she has seen more issues in
younger student-athletes as they transition to
college life.
“At the younger ages — and for all students,
really — there is a lot of pressure and you are
tired on top of everything, and it’s hard. As
the students transition, they become great at
time management, though. They work well
in teams, and so I guess I come to athletes’
defense a little.”
“The stakes are higher here, but I think that
in my experience, it’s not that the professors
have to make special accommodations, but you
just have to accept that you have to be willing
to let a student miss class because that is the
next step in their career. “
***
Jay Basten, a Sport Management professor,
said each student-athlete is unique and has
a different set of priorities, but overall their
presence and participation in his classes, espe-
cially those that touch on college level sports,
has added to the learning experience in the
classroom.
“It’s great having student-athletes in those
particular discussions, because it gives the
non-athlete students some real insights into
the challenging they face.” Basten said. “For
me, I’ve been here for 15 years teaching in the
program, and overall it has been very positive
having them in the class. They are an impres-
sive group of students, but they do have some
distinctive challenges.”
These challenges, Basten said, are dealing
with limited time and balancing their other
time commitments on the field or on the court.
Addressing these issues as a professor is a bal-
ancing act as well. While Basten said he obvi-
ously must find alternative ways to ensure
student-athletes are receiving and under-
standing the material in class, he also does not
support making special concessions or differ-
ent standards for student-athletes.
“When student-athletes do have issues
as far as conflicts, ultimately we believe that
our classes are as important as their practice
times,” Basten said. “I encourage them to come
to office hours, but I particularly stress that
they should come if they are missing classes,
but I don’t really do anything proactive for any
student, because I believe they need to be able
to take responsibility for themselves.”
By Zach Shaw, Daily Sports Writer and Emma Kerr, Daily News Editor
Graduating from the Gridiron:
How athletes achieve success in an academic environment
Read the rest of this article online at
MichiganDaily.com