The Overworked, Underappreciated Former Student-Athlete of Today

The Overworked, Underappreciated Former Student-Athlete of Today

by Alex "Moose" Strizak

July 18, 2021

While the NCAA continues its battle against the Name Image likeness (NIL) movement for future collegiate student-athletes, there should also be a fight for their former student-athletes.

Former athletes continue to overwork, overachieve, and be underappreciated for their efforts because the NCAA has set that as the standard student-athletes should expect throughout their experiences in their sporting careers. The working world has little to no concept that since their first day being recruited to play at the “next level”, student-athletes have been asked to fully commit themselves with no promise of anything in return except the results that they can see for themselves from their training and the scoreboard.

But what happens after that final game or competition? They may now be an associate at your local bank, or showing you a house for their real estate company, but former student-athletes are surrounding you in your everyday encounters and most likely you wouldn’t know because they’re too humble to share how hard they have already worked in their life. The transition to that position that you now see them working in was most likely extremely difficult, but you may never know that because student-athletes know how to not show their struggle and continue to press on because of their experience in their full commitment to both collegiate competitions and the classroom.

Blood, sweat, tears, and going beyond what they thought possible of themselves may have earned them an athletic scholarship or a recruited walk-on position to compete for a roster spot, but what about post-graduation? They were able to both study and compete at their sport with many completing their undergraduate degree, but what is their transition process like into the working world from the usually abrupt end to their sporting career?

Many former athletes, like myself, will agree that experience in competing in a sport will teach you that nothing is promised (including even receiving an athletic scholarship, as I never did) and that all you can do is work your hardest and let the results take care of themselves. However, this mindset does not transition effectively to the working world where former athletes will be surrounded by those that have not shared these experiences or cannot fully understand where the athlete’s mindset is coming from. From a personal perspective, I struggled to find balance between being a recruited walk-on for a collegiate baseball team and my school work at an academically challenging university... Well… My struggle was more trying to explain to myself why I continually prioritized baseball and making the spring roster over my schoolwork and relationships with those close to me.

After multiple coaching changes, fighting through frustration in working so hard to better myself as an athlete, the decision came to transfer out of the university I was currently attending and to also transfer out of my current mindset. I was able to find balance where I was fully dedicated to being the best baseball player I could be while also being the best student I could be. Making the All-Conference Academic team and seeing playing time was a great achievement, but the true success was knowing I was doing everything I could to reach my full potential both as an athlete and as a student in the classroom.

At the top of my game in my sport, I was hit with the scariest of injuries a pitcher can face - A tear in my UCL. Without hesitation, I did what I knew was best for my career going forward and opted to not have surgery and went straight into the workforce to begin my career. It’s been 3 full years since that difficult decision to hang up my spikes, and recently I find myself questioning if I am doing all I can to progress forward in the working world. Even after completing my Masters degree while working full time, I can feel like there is still more to progress towards as I continue to work this entry-level position that I have mastered through and through. I find myself not having any others in my surrounding workspace that I can share these difficulties with. Most importantly, I find myself realizing that the working world doesn’t understand me and my fellow former athletes.

I wanted to see if other student-athletes were having the same growing pains after their sporting aspirations concluded. I sent a survey to many different groups and the survey was completed by 34 former student-athletes. The numbers reflect that many student-athletes are not confident in how the working world perceives them and how their goals for their “best self” don’t mesh with what is asked of them after their athletic career has concluded. Let’s dive in to the numbers:

Do you feel you are properly compensated at your current occupation?

Yes 41.2%

No 44.1%

Not Sure 11.8%

Unemployed 2.9%

It is shocking that we can’t reach at least half of former student-athletes feeling that the work they are putting in at their organization is compensating them properly. 44.1% of student-athletes feeling they are outright not getting back what they should receive for their efforts they are putting in is troubling because we know that most student-athletes will be putting in far more effort than what is expected or asked of them. These individuals have spent their whole lives fully committed to bettering themselves and now will carry that mindset over to their work to fill the gap that is missing from their sporting competitions. Any employee that feels their efforts are not properly compensated is at risk of feeling lost or unmotivated at work and at home, but with student-athletes it can sometimes add gasoline to a fire where the student-athlete immerses themselves even more in their work.

Is your current occupation one that you feel is helping you reach your full potential?

Yes 52.9%

No 26.5%

Not Sure 17.6%

Unemployed 2.9%

As a former student-athlete, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve listened to a coach tell me, “Don’t do something if you’re not 100% bought into what you are doing and bettering yourself at that task.” If an employee doesn’t feel their work is helping them better themselves for their current efforts or what the future may hold for them, what are they doing the work for? This is a dangerous question for someone to ask themselves, especially if they recently has a drastic life change like not being able to compete in their sport they had trained most of their life for. They now are searching for a purpose outside of their sport, and many of them are not finding that purpose through their current occupation. But why are student-athletes struggling to adjust to the working world? Why do many feel they were unprepared when they did enter the workforce as shown by the 52.9% that submitted to the survey they exited their sport with below-average confidence in their ability to work right away?

The issue is appearing to be that the working world does not fully understand the student-athlete in its entirety and, therefore, is ill-prepared to put the former student-athlete in the best position to succeed at work. The working world does not appear to fully understand what type of employee they will be getting if they hire a former student-athlete. “Transitioning out of college athletics was emotionally difficult,” said a survey respondent. This former athlete has spent years specifically training to be the best they can possibly be at their sport. Now, you take that sport away from them and that individual will most-likely struggle to find something to fill that time and effort gap that has suddenly been thrown on them.

The natural reaction will be for the former athlete to replace this area of effort with their work, and work does not have a specific way of tracking a person’s success. Competing in a sport gives you immediate results that an athlete can observe and apply to their next effort. Whether it’s doing film study in a training facility or having a scoreboard, there was a way for this athlete to view their work and immediately take action to progress. Statistics are an integral part of competing and sports with their ability to provide that immediate feedback on the athlete's performance.

However, there is not a scoreboard at work. A former athlete is going to directly look at how they are being treated by their supervisors and their ability to be promoted as a substitute for that scoreboard which is a very dangerous game to play. Most of the working world does not appear to understand that a student-athlete will take these results to their core, compared to those that may be showing up to work “just for the paycheck and to make ends meet”... The student-athlete will do everything within themselves to become the best at whatever task they are currently working on and need feedback on the progress of these efforts so that they can continue to improve in their next attempt.

All of these former student-athletes are left once again relying fully on themselves because the NCAA has been failing them since day one. “I was able to do an internship in my exact field during my time as a student athlete,” wrote one participant of the survey. “Being a student athlete in my mind certainly prepares you for most things and I agree that it should be taken more seriously on job application/resumes, but that is not what prepared me for my job as an engineer, my internship did.”

I can agree with this statement in that, from a personal perspective, I interned for the office I now currently work at while also competing in a summer collegiate league for my sport. I would spend 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM interning and then compete from 7 PM to 10 PM for my sport and get up the next morning to do it again. None of my fellow interns would ever come close to having managed both of these stresses at the same time, but I was able to successfully do it, just as this survey participant was able to compete collegiately and intern at the same time at a very high level. But, that doesn’t mean these efforts should go unnoticed. The addition of being a student-athlete on a resume has a very flimsy weight because it will completely depend on the hiring office. Now, any experience on a resume can vary based on the hiring office’s opinions, but the odds of a hiring office fully understanding the commitment a student-athlete has already put in and will continue to put in at their next opportunity are very low.

Only 24.2% of those surveyed felt their current employing office fully understands what it took to be a student-athlete with an equal amount feeling their current employing office has no idea the commitment it took. These student-athletes have had to rely solely on their own efforts since they first were putting in hours of training and attending tournaments to be recruited for college athletics and now post-college competition they continue to overwork and overachieve. However, they are continuing to be undercompensated for their efforts.

“I felt very overwhelmed and underprepared for life after college athletics,” said one surveyed individual. “As an athlete, there really isn’t time to join clubs or have internships that allow us to explore career opportunities. However, we are promised employers will value our athletic careers, which has not been true in my experience. There may be specific careers that value college athletics, but it is far from the majority.”

Yes, as former student-athletes we have gone above and beyond everything that was asked of us and everything we thought we could possibly do both physically and mentally. However, I am finally ready to say that I cannot control the outcome after all my work is completed and how that work will be received. I cannot control how a hiring office will view “Former Collegiate Student-Athlete” on a resume, but that doesn’t mean that the majority of perception on this topic can continue to be incorrect. Efforts can be taken to assist in spreading awareness of the commitment it currently takes and used to take to compete collegiately and how that competition does prepare a student-athlete to be one of the most hardworking potential employees for an organization. The NCAA must not only strive to better their care and assistance of their current & future student-athletes, but must also look to help those that have already graduated and completed their education.

Student-athletes are one of the most humble and hardworking groups in our society and should be given the proper respect they deserve. It’s time they start being properly acknowledged for the hard work they logged throughout their lives competing, especially since we know they’ll never stop trying to better themselves everyday no matter what difficulties are thrown their way.