Sports
In a Class by Themselves
A new course helps athletes tackle college life.
When fans watch Badger sports teams, they see some of the best-prepared and most-competitive college athletes around. What they may not see is that underneath those cardinal-and-white jerseys, those athletes are just ordinary kids, coping with all the mundane stresses of college. They’re learning how to live on their own. They don’t get enough sleep. They worry about midterms. They miss their parents.
What’s more, they’re doing it all while trying to be student-athletes, a hyphenated existence that pulls them in multiple directions at once. For many athletes, that creates a unique kind of pressure that you can’t begin to appreciate until you’ve run a 1,600 in their track spikes.
“It was a big transition for me,” says Carly Ducharme, a freshman on the Badger track and field team. “I don’t think a lot of people understand the time commitment it takes to be an athlete here. You know that you’re going to have four to five hours every day devoted to your sport, and that doesn’t leave much time for other things. It’s hard to keep a balance.”
This spring, Ducharme took a class with a group of people who can relate. Titled Counseling Psychology 115: Contemporary Issues Affecting Student-Athletes, it’s the first officially listed UW-Madison course designed specifically for varsity athletes. Offered for the first time this year, the course gives “a kind of continued orientation” about what it takes to succeed as a student-athlete, says Kelli Richards, who teaches the course.
When fans watch Badger sports teams, they see some of the best-prepared and most-competitive college athletes around. What they may not see is that underneath those cardinal-and-white jerseys, those athletes are just ordinary kids, coping with all the mundane stresses of college. They’re learning how to live on their own. They don’t get enough sleep. They worry about midterms. They miss their parents.
What’s more, they’re doing it all while trying to be student-athletes, a hyphenated existence that pulls them in multiple directions at once. For many athletes, that creates a unique kind of pressure that you can’t begin to appreciate until you’ve run a 1,600 in their track spikes.
“It was a big transition for me,” says Carly Ducharme, a freshman on the Badger track and field team. “I don’t think a lot of people understand the time commitment it takes to be an athlete here. You know that you’re going to have four to five hours every day devoted to your sport, and that doesn’t leave much time for other things. It’s hard to keep a balance.”
This spring, Ducharme took a class with a group of people who can relate. Titled Counseling Psychology 115: Contemporary Issues Affecting Student-Athletes, it’s the first officially listed UW-Madison course designed specifically for varsity athletes. Offered for the first time this year, the course gives “a kind of continued orientation” about what it takes to succeed as a student-athlete, says Kelli Richards, who teaches the course.
Richards coordinates the athletic department’s Champs Life Skills program, an NCAA-sponsored initiative that promotes athletes’ personal and academic development. She designed the course to reach student-athletes early in their careers, when they often struggle with the colliding demands of classes, sports team schedules, and their social lives. The once-a-week, one-credit course covers topics such as time management, stress reduction, and good study habits.
Technically, the class is open to anyone, but its content is skewed heavily toward scholarship athletes, who typically spend twenty hours a week or more in practices and athletic training. About sixty student athletes took the course during its pilot campaign, and Richards says it may eventually become a requirement for freshmen competing in UW-Madison’s twenty-three varsity sports.
“I think it’s really helpful to be able to talk with other athletes who know what you’re going through,” says Ducharme. Her friends outside of sports often don’t understand the demands on her time, she says. “When I get home at the end of the day, that’s my only time to study. But they’ve already done their studying, and they want to go out.”
Mickey Perry, a freshman basketball player, says the course helped him devise strategies for keeping track of his multiple time commitments, something he admits he didn’t do very well during his first semester on campus.
“That was definitely my biggest challenge. You’ve got so many things to do, with basketball and with your classes, and it can be kind of overwhelming sometimes,” he says. “It’s hard work, but it’s doable. You see people who can do it, and you know it can be done.”
Technically, the class is open to anyone, but its content is skewed heavily toward scholarship athletes, who typically spend twenty hours a week or more in practices and athletic training. About sixty student athletes took the course during its pilot campaign, and Richards says it may eventually become a requirement for freshmen competing in UW-Madison’s twenty-three varsity sports.
“I think it’s really helpful to be able to talk with other athletes who know what you’re going through,” says Ducharme. Her friends outside of sports often don’t understand the demands on her time, she says. “When I get home at the end of the day, that’s my only time to study. But they’ve already done their studying, and they want to go out.”
Mickey Perry, a freshman basketball player, says the course helped him devise strategies for keeping track of his multiple time commitments, something he admits he didn’t do very well during his first semester on campus.
“That was definitely my biggest challenge. You’ve got so many things to do, with basketball and with your classes, and it can be kind of overwhelming sometimes,” he says. “It’s hard work, but it’s doable. You see people who can do it, and you know it can be done.”
Although the athletic department offers tutoring and other assistance to student-athletes, the course reinforces messages they get from coaches and others, says David Harris, an associate athletic director in charge of academic services.
“We know that being a student-athlete can be very rewarding, but we also know it’s a lot of hard work,” he says. “We felt this course was another way that we could give them information that can help them get the most out of their experience here.”
And that includes exploring issues such as relationship violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and race relations, which also tinge differently when viewed through the eyes of a student athlete. For one thing, competitors in high-profile sports often have a public stature that amplifies their actions on and off the field, and that means their mistakes earn as much attention as their successes. In class, they hear that with celebrity comes responsibility.
“It’s about helping them to make smart choices and good decisions during their time here,” says Harris.
“We know that being a student-athlete can be very rewarding, but we also know it’s a lot of hard work,” he says. “We felt this course was another way that we could give them information that can help them get the most out of their experience here.”
And that includes exploring issues such as relationship violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and race relations, which also tinge differently when viewed through the eyes of a student athlete. For one thing, competitors in high-profile sports often have a public stature that amplifies their actions on and off the field, and that means their mistakes earn as much attention as their successes. In class, they hear that with celebrity comes responsibility.
“It’s about helping them to make smart choices and good decisions during their time here,” says Harris.
Carmen Hotvedt, a violence prevention specialist for University Health Services, says it’s important to speak directly to student-athletes about these issues, in part because “they can use their public status as leaders and opinion setters. I think there’s a special responsibility for student-athletes to know the limits, not just so they won’t commit dating violence themselves, but also because they can help forward the discussion about consent and sexual responsibility.”
Diversity is another significant issue for student-athletes, who represent one of the most racially, geographically, and economically mixed communities on campus. “The student athlete population is so diverse, especially compared to the rest of Wisconsin,” says Richards, a former college volleyball player who is finishing a master’s degree in counseling psychology. “I think they experience diversity a little more intensely than other students do, and we try to help them talk about that.”
During one session, Richards asks students to write about “a time in your life when you felt different,” which provokes discussion about racial and cultural identity. Students then divide into small groups to talk about how these issues affect their teams. A football player tells a member of the soccer team that his teammates “sometimes fight about whether to play country music or BET [Black Entertainment Television].”
Diversity is another significant issue for student-athletes, who represent one of the most racially, geographically, and economically mixed communities on campus. “The student athlete population is so diverse, especially compared to the rest of Wisconsin,” says Richards, a former college volleyball player who is finishing a master’s degree in counseling psychology. “I think they experience diversity a little more intensely than other students do, and we try to help them talk about that.”
During one session, Richards asks students to write about “a time in your life when you felt different,” which provokes discussion about racial and cultural identity. Students then divide into small groups to talk about how these issues affect their teams. A football player tells a member of the soccer team that his teammates “sometimes fight about whether to play country music or BET [Black Entertainment Television].”
When it comes to accomplishing goals, though, he says, “We always work together.”
For Perry, who grew up in Maywood, Illinois, a predominantly African-American suburb of Chicago, interactions such as these have helped him ease into a campus culture that bears little resemblance to his own. “I’ve met people from all over the world in this class,” he says.
“A lot of athletes hold stuff in, because they’re afraid they’ll get in trouble if they talk about what’s going on,” he says. “But here, you can bring stuff up and hear what other people think. It’s helped me not be afraid to ask questions anymore.”
— Michael Penn
For Perry, who grew up in Maywood, Illinois, a predominantly African-American suburb of Chicago, interactions such as these have helped him ease into a campus culture that bears little resemblance to his own. “I’ve met people from all over the world in this class,” he says.
“A lot of athletes hold stuff in, because they’re afraid they’ll get in trouble if they talk about what’s going on,” he says. “But here, you can bring stuff up and hear what other people think. It’s helped me not be afraid to ask questions anymore.”
— Michael Penn
Mile Markers
On a cool evening in May, former UW track star Matt Tegenkamp ’05 became the first person to run a sub-four-minute mile in Wisconsin. A little more than a second later, Chris Solinsky x’08 became the second.
Both milestones came during the highlight event of the Wisconsin Twilight track meet at the UW’s McClimon Memorial Track. Crowds lined the track to watch the mile, a special event in which seven runners sought to break the storied four-minute barrier. Tegenkamp, who now runs professionally for Nike, sprinted past Solinsky in the last two hundred yards to finish in 3 minutes, 56.38 seconds. Solinsky crossed the line at 3:57.8.
“It was awesome,” Solinsky said of the race atmosphere. “I’ve never seen this many people here for a meet. To have this many people here and right on the track was great.”
Steve Lacy ’78 had held the honor of running the fastest mile on state soil for more than twenty years, finishing in 4:00.4 in 1979. Since track’s conversion to metric distances, however, mile races have rarely been staged. The Twilight event was the first mile race run at UW’s outdoor track since 1973.
— Staff
Both milestones came during the highlight event of the Wisconsin Twilight track meet at the UW’s McClimon Memorial Track. Crowds lined the track to watch the mile, a special event in which seven runners sought to break the storied four-minute barrier. Tegenkamp, who now runs professionally for Nike, sprinted past Solinsky in the last two hundred yards to finish in 3 minutes, 56.38 seconds. Solinsky crossed the line at 3:57.8.
“It was awesome,” Solinsky said of the race atmosphere. “I’ve never seen this many people here for a meet. To have this many people here and right on the track was great.”
Steve Lacy ’78 had held the honor of running the fastest mile on state soil for more than twenty years, finishing in 4:00.4 in 1979. Since track’s conversion to metric distances, however, mile races have rarely been staged. The Twilight event was the first mile race run at UW’s outdoor track since 1973.
— Staff
- You need more than two hands to count the events in which Brown competes. He’s a Big Ten champion and UW record holder in the indoor heptathlon and competes in the shot put, javelin, and the ten-event decathlon during the outdoor season.
- An academic All-American last year, Brown has twice earned the best grade point average on the track team, and his major is no slouch: biochemistry.
- He recently earned a $7,500 scholarship from the NCAA to help fund postgraduate studies, which he’ll use to enroll in the UW Medical School, which he chose after earning a near-perfect score on his MCAT.
- A native of Madison, he was recruited by several Big Ten schools to play football, but injuries led him to focus on track. His brother, Matt x’07, is on the Badger football team; his mother played college basketball at UW-Stevens Point; and his father coaches high school track.
- His grandparents have never missed a track meet, following the team to places such as Arizona, Virginia, and California to cheer on their grandson.
BADGER TICKER
At the NCAA indoor track and field championships in March, UW runner Chris Solinsky successfully defended his title in the 3,000-meter race, becoming the first Badger to earn back-to-back national championships since 1971. Led by Solinsky’s performance, the men’s team earned seventh place at the championships. It also won both the indoor and outdoor Big Ten titles for the third consecutive year.
Freshman sensation Yi Ting Siow paced the Badger women’s swimming team to a ninth-place finish at the NCAA championships in March, the team’s highest rank ever. Yi, one of eleven Badger swimmers who qualified for the championships, placed fifth in the 200-yard individual medley and sixth in the 200-yard breaststroke. She teamed with Anna Trinidad, Emily Carpenter, and Jen Illescas on the 800-yard freestyle relay, which finished twelfth and was one of five UW relay teams to score points at the meet.
The men’s golf and softball teams took top honors in the inaugural Champs Cup, a new competition among the UW’s twenty-three varsity sports programs. Teams earned points for a range of academic and extracurricular activities, including classroom excellence, personal growth, community outreach, school spirit, and participation in student-athlete leadership groups. The competition was created to encourage participation in the Champs Life Skills program, which promotes personal and academic achievement among Badger student-athletes.
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Freshman sensation Yi Ting Siow paced the Badger women’s swimming team to a ninth-place finish at the NCAA championships in March, the team’s highest rank ever. Yi, one of eleven Badger swimmers who qualified for the championships, placed fifth in the 200-yard individual medley and sixth in the 200-yard breaststroke. She teamed with Anna Trinidad, Emily Carpenter, and Jen Illescas on the 800-yard freestyle relay, which finished twelfth and was one of five UW relay teams to score points at the meet.
The men’s golf and softball teams took top honors in the inaugural Champs Cup, a new competition among the UW’s twenty-three varsity sports programs. Teams earned points for a range of academic and extracurricular activities, including classroom excellence, personal growth, community outreach, school spirit, and participation in student-athlete leadership groups. The competition was created to encourage participation in the Champs Life Skills program, which promotes personal and academic achievement among Badger student-athletes.
For a printer-friendly version of this section, click here [pdf]
