More than a game - Faculty help gopher athletes make academics #1
By Suzy Frisch
Finals week can stress out even the best students, as they study for multiple tests and wrap up term papers. Imagine adding high-level athletic competition to the mix.
That’s a frequent occurrence for kinesiology student Heather Dorniden and her fellow University of Minnesota track team members. Three years in a row, as she prepared mentally and physically to race in the Big Ten Tournament, she first had to sit down in a hotel conference room for a final exam. Then it was off to the track for her 800- and 1,500-meter races and the 4x400 meter relay.
Clearly she has learned to handle the pressure, earning a 3.90 GPA while becoming the most decorated Gopher women’s track and field athlete in history. She’s a nine-time All-American and two-time Gopher Female Athlete of the Year who helped her team clinch its first-ever Big Ten titles in indoor track (2007, 2008, 2009), outdoor track (2006), and cross-country (2008, 2009).
“I’ve never really settled for less than the best in everything I do, so I put the same effort into class activities as I do into track or cross country,” says Dorniden, a fifth-year senior who plans to train for the 2012 Olympics and earn a doctorate in physical therapy. “Competing helps me focus a lot on school, especially knowing that my grade point average means something if I want to compete.”
Support on and off the field
Athletes push their bodies to the limit during practice, compete with teammates for starting positions, and strive to perform exceptionally during games. Then, physically exhausted, they must find time and energy to study and stretch their minds, says Jeanne Higbee, a professor of postsecondary teaching and learning, who teaches the NCAA-required First-Year Experience class for all incoming Gopher athletes.
Higbee’s class and other supports for first-year student athletes can be vital to their overall academic success. So discovered the Provost’s Task Force on the Academic Support and Performance of Athletes, led by School of Kinesiology Director Mary Jo Kane. As part of the University’s efforts to improve graduation rates among all students, the task force analyzed student data from 1999 to 2007 and determined that the first semester performance of scholar athletes was one of the most important predictors of whether they would complete their degree.
“For those student athletes who are academically fragile, you want structures in place so they can hit the ground running when they come to the U,” says Kane.
During the 24 years she has been teaching First Year Experience courses, Higbee has researched the persistence of student athletes and non-athletes alike. She discovered that their overall reasons for attending college greatly predict how well they will do in college. The students who attend college to avoid low-paying jobs or because of family expectations typically didn’t do as well as students who want a higher education to become deeper thinkers or more well-rounded individuals.
To align with these findings, Higbee has designed the University’s First Year Experience course to include sections on the broader purpose of higher education, selecting majors and graduation planning, career development, and community service. That way, students begin to understand that they are attending college as preparation for their entire lives, not just to get a degree. The class also helps athletes with the realities of college life, including time management, handling stress, academic honesty, diversity, personal finance, and more.
Higbee feels so strongly that athletes focus on their academic reasons for attending college that she has volunteered her time on weekends to speak to potential football recruits for the Gophers.
Coaching to success
Baseball Coach and alumnus John Anderson, taps into skills learned, in part, at the college to help players like catcher and sport management senior Kyle Knudson prepare for life off the diamond.
Kyle Knudson, a catcher on the Gopher baseball team, admits that he stumbled a bit during his transition from high school to the academic rigor of college, performing poorly on his first two tests. Turning to an academic counselor, he got some tips on studying and test preparation, which also motivated him to increase his overall study time.
Knudson eventually learned how to study on the road—and to room with someone with similar intentions—during the busy baseball season. It can be a 40-hour weekly commitment, including travel for series from Thursday until early Monday morning, practices, as well as six to eight games a week.
“You definitely have to be self-motivated to do homework on the road,” says Knudson, a senior in the School of Kinesiology’s sport management program who aims to work with youth sports camps. “It doesn’t come easy because there are a lot of other distractions there, like the hotel TV and teammates hanging out next door.”
Head baseball coach John Anderson makes sure that academics are a priority for players such as Knudson. For Anderson (B.S., ’77), an alumnus who earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education, it all starts during the recruiting process. He seeks players who are internally motivated and have academic and career goals, students who understand that they attend the U to earn a degree first and to play baseball second.
Then Anderson works hard to create a team culture that stresses academic excellence, with the veteran players coaching younger teammates to focus on their studies. Calling upon his own education at the college, he advises his athletes to learn to manage their time, take advantage of the people and resources at the University and the larger community, and find a major they are passionate about. His efforts resulted in the two highest team GPAs in Gopher baseball history during the last two seasons—and one of its most successful seasons on the field.
“I’m here to prepare people for the next 50 years of their lives. They need a degree to open doors to other opportunities,” says Anderson. “Our core philosophy is, ‘You are here to earn a degree, and we think you can be good on the field and in the classroom.’ They aren’t mutually exclusive,” says Anderson, who credits the college with a comprehensive understanding of the human body and of how athletes’ physical, mental, and emotional states can affect performance.
Anderson’s message is similar to the one Stacy Ingraham passes on to future coaches. As coordinator of the 15-credit coaching certificate program, Ingraham ensures that consistent themes include the morals and ethics of coaching, emphasizing academics, and being a positive influence.
“I just want our future coaches to understand that there is no one who can influence these kids academically more than them,” says Ingraham, an instructor in the college who has a Ph.D. in exercise physiology and was a college athlete and coach. “They need to use that platform, and they would be negligent not to. Ask your student-athletes how classes are going and hold them accountable.”
Coaches play a critical role in the success of student athletes, especially when they encourage academic excellence in their players and meet regularly with them about their progress toward graduation, agrees Rich Weinberg, a distinguished University teaching professor of child psychology who recently completed a nine-year stint as faculty athletics representative.
Recently the University instituted more checks and balances for its athletic programs, which help improve athletes’ experience of earning a degree while competing, Weinberg says. The measures include making sure that the right students are admitted in the first place, that scholar athletes take rigorous courses on track to earning a degree, and that they perform up to NCAA and University standards.
“It’s amazing to see how these kids can achieve academically and also be competitive in a Big Ten school,” says Weinberg. “They use the discipline they have for sport and put it into academics.”
Higbee holds a similarly high opinion of the Gopher athletes, whom she gets to know well. “These are some truly outstanding young men and women, and they might be in the press only when one individual does something people will be critical of,” says Higbee, whose class also includes advice on living life in a fishbowl. “In addition to athletics, they are very dedicated and committed to being successful in school as well as helping others. It’s one of the things I see shining through over and over again.”