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By Danny Anderson

The devotion that many athletes have for their sport is immense. Student athletes, such as University of Colorado-Boulder soccer player Brittany Stark, possess a level of dedication unmatched by athletes alone.

“I love soccer,” Stark said. “I don’t know what I would do without it.”

Student-athletes must be able to maximize productivity as there is no time to waste when the season rolls around. From training, to treatment sessions, to lectures and studying, a student-athlete’s schedule is extremely busy.

Time management. It’s something we all need to know how to do, but to student athletes competing at the intercollegiate level, time management is a skill that must be honed as much as their technique on the court and field.

“We are kind of forced to focus on time management and getting our stuff done early,” Stark said. It’s no small feat to juggle essays and calculus with intense hours of training and traveling the country, and some do it better than others.

Sixty-seven percent of all student-athletes (Figure 1) that entered their freshman year at CU-Boulder in 2008 graduated with an undergraduate degree after six years, according to the CU-Boulder athletic department. Less than 2 percent of all college football and basketball players are drafted by the NFL and NBA respectively, according to the NCAA.

The exclusivity of professional sports stresses the importance of focusing on studies.

The select few who are chosen to compete professionally leaves the tens of thousands of student-athletes in the country who weren’t necessarily all-Americans to don traditional business suits and uniforms and meet their colleagues at the office at 8 a.m.

The Herbst Academic Center at CU-Boulder is dedicated to helping student-athletes flourish in their respective academic fields. This center helps to strategically set up schedules that “progress towards undergraduate degrees,” pair students with tutors in a myriad of fields, and make arrangements for students to have access to laptops when they travel, among other useful tools.

The staff at the Herbst Academic Center are there for student athletes to help them cope with the stresses and pressures they face daily.

Senior Learning Specialist for Athletics Michele Brannigan is one of those who help. Brannigan said student-athletes constantly have to be aware they represent the university wherever they are, whether it’s on Pearl Street in Boulder, in other cities, or in their hometown.

“(Student-athletes) are held to a higher accountability than the average student,” Brannigan said.

When cheering fans take their seats in the Coors Events Center and fill the stands at Folsom Field, they are anticipating an exciting game. The event is the product of years of endless hours of training and mental preparation to compete and perform at the highest intensity possible. Behind those long hours in the weight room and exhausting morning runs is a student that manages time in such a way that enables them to be a college athlete.