TRANSCRIPT: Leading As A Student-Athlete In & Out Of The Classroom

Speaker: George Hoey

Leading As A Student-Athlete In & Out Of The Classroom

Hi, I’m George Hoey, and I’m here to talk to you today about keys to being a successful student athlete. And you may ask who is this guy and why does he care? To give you a bit of my background, I attended the University of Michigan, where I played football, ran track, and I was one of those persons who just loved to be out there participating in sports. I was a former athlete in college and want to give you some ideas not only about what it means to be a student athlete but how to function as a student athlete.

Know Yourself

I think it’s important to know that when you’re speaking about yourself you can speak about yourself confidently, you can be self-assured, no matter who you’re talking to. If you’re talking to boosters, donors, faculty members, some of your teammates, even folks just around the campus community, it’s important to represent yourself well, because you’re not just representing yourself, you’re representing your family. You’re representing the institution. You’re representing a lot of entities. So as you’re out and about, or even in close quarters, talk about who you are in a very confident and a very succinct manner; it’s going to serve you long beyond your being a student athlete on a college campus.

In order to be a strong representative of your sport, your college and your community, you need to know what is important to each. If you don't know, find out. Ask your coach, ask your advisor, ask someone in the community.

Values & Authenticity

As a young person, student-athlete or not, you need to know your values so that you have a foundation to lean upon during tough times. For me, I value truth, honesty, and transparency in all that I do. I believe that in order to have the trust of your coaches and your teammates, you need to be a person of honesty and integrity. In order to have the trust of your fans in your community, you need to be a person of authenticity.

Whether you want to be or not, you will be seen as a role model to others. So it's very important that you represent yourself in the best possible way.

Think about the values presented and about the potential repercussions of compromising these core values. As a student-athlete, the repercussions for you could be much greater than of a non student-athlete. Loss of trust, loss of your scholarship, loss of athletic participation, negative publicity that reflects poorly on you, your family and your sport.

Motivation & Performance

You know, what motivates you? What are the reasons that you show up every day, whether it’s in the classroom, whether it’s on the practice field, whether it’s in competition? You know, who are you and how do you perform? You need to know that about yourself. You need to know what inspires you, what motivates you, what gets you up, and why you want to take charge of a given day. You’re striving always to be the best and not settling for anything less. It’s one thing to strive for it, but you have to put energy behind it. Give it traction. And you know whether you’re someone who is driven just intuitively or if you’re someone who needs to be pushed. But know that about yourself and know how you perform and take that with you, whether on the field, on the court, in the classroom, or just on the campus community.

If you do not know what your learning style is, see an advisor and take an inventory to find out how you learn best. If you do know, share that information with your coach and your teachers. Additionally, seek out advice about how you can improve on your areas of weakness.

Preparation

One other thing that I think is important is how you prepare. When I was working at the University of Michigan, a minister from New Jersey gave me some advice that I have always remembered. It is called the 7 P’s which stand for: proper, prior, planning, prevents, pitifully, poor, performance, and I think it is applicable in so many situations. If you want to succeed in anything you do, preparation is key, so always remember the 7 P’s.

Think about when you have performed your best on a test, in your class and in your sport. Write them down. Now, write down the things you did to prepare for each of these items. Then write down at least one other thing you could have done for each.

You may want to ask others for advice here. Now utilize these preparation techniques for future activities.

Excel/Excellence

I’d also like to talk about excelling and what it means to excel, to know what you need to excel. You know how you function. You know how you participate in athletics. You know how you participate in the classroom. You know, what do you need to excel, because I don’t believe you would be involved in athletics if it wasn’t about excellence, if it wasn’t about achieving, if it wasn’t about going that extra mile. A lot of clichés, but still, you want to excel.

And in your sport you’re probably concerned about facilities, you’re probably concerned about the equipment that you have, proper conditioning, positive reinforcement. Where is it coming from? Is it going to come from your teammates, your peers? Is it going to come from your strength conditioning coach? Is it going to come from your head coach? You know, who are you there for? Are you for yourself or are you there for someone else? Do you need to constantly be challenged? You know, is it the weights that really are going to challenge you and you want to be able to push more or are you just thinking I only need so much and I can get stronger, I can be quicker, I can be flexible, I can be fast? What’s in it for you? You know, what do you need to excel to reach those points that you set, the sights that you set for yourself?

You know, you’re being taught and shown all that you need to know by experts. Those who are around you, especially in the college setting, have gone through a lot of trials and they know what’s good for the program, for the individuals that they have in their programs. So know what you need. Call on those folks to be able to support you to meet your needs.

Performance, Distractions & Integrity

When you think about performance, think about where you perform and who might be watching. Whether at home, on the road, in practice, in the classroom, in the conditioning room , or in teams. It is important to remember that even though you are simply going about your daily routine, as a student-athlete, you might be under scrutiny. There could be people watching, waiting for you to make a mistake, to act out on your frustrations, to choose poorly. You may think that you are in a safe haven but especially given the age of cell phones, photos and videos, you want to be cognizant of your surroundings and act in a manner of integrity.

We all know that acting with integrity is important. Think about distractions that you have experienced in the past, or about potential distractions and prepare a plan for how you will deal with these, so that you do not compromise your integrity.

Motivation & Demands

I think we all know that motivation is important to success. But do you know what truly motivates you? What success means to you? Are you motivated to improve your skills?

To improve your school's athletic standing? To win a national championship? You know, to win it all. What do you want to accomplish and why?

Are you motivated by internal factors or external factors? Do you do it for your family? For your friends? For your faith?

Or you simply believe that it's your destiny? Do they want to see you succeed? Do they want to share in your accomplishments? My guess is, the answer to all these questions is yes.

So be the best you can be. And stay motivated.

Your Support System

Every college student has ups and downs, but it can be even more pronounced if you are far away from family and friends. The good news is that you have many people who can support you at college, who can be your family away from home. You have your teammates, your coaches, the academic staff, athletic staff, and classmates. It is important to know your support system, who they are, where they are located and how they can help you.

Think about some potential issues you may face in college and write them down. Now think about which person on campus would be the best to help you with that issue. It may be that you need to get assistance from two or three people and not just one. For example, if you were behind in class due to travel for your sport, the best person to talk to is your teacher to see what you need to do in order to catch up.

However, you may also need a tutor and you will want to keep your coach informed, so in this case, you are utilizing three of your resources.

Coaches 

As a student-athlete, you have a resource that non-student athletes don’t have. You have your coach or if you are lucky, you have a staff of coaches. You may have a head coach, a specialty or position coach, a recruiting coach and a strength & conditioning coach. be sure to make the most of these relationships for support. Not just for support and tips about how to improve in your sport, but about how to deal with the stress of being a student-athlete, about how to use visualization as a tool, about how to deal with potential failure or personal loss, or about how to communicate with the media. Your coaches are always gonna be there for you and they're gonna be your backup at all times.

You may think that because you participate in a sport, that you will naturally develop a relationship with your coach or coaches. However, all relationships take time and energy to develop. Take time to visit your coach outside of practice. Visit the assistant coach or your position coach if your head coach is unavailable.

Teammates & Friendships

Think about your teammates. What does being a good teammate mean to you? How do you feel about individual accomplishments versus team accomplishments? Do you know your teammates outside of your sport? What can you learn from your teammates in terms of their work ethic, their study habits, their communication skills? What do you admire about your teammates and what don’t you admire? How can you contribute to  your team as a whole and to your teammates individually? and how can you get to know your teammates better so that you can appreciate all that they offer? The beauty of teams is that they are composed of unique and diverse people, so branch out and learn all that you can from your teammates.

Courses To Live By

In addition to having a support system, I believe there are four cornerstones in education that lead to success in the classroom and in life, and I call them Courses To Live By. The 4 cornerstones that I believe in are critical and analytical thinking, written and verbal communication, technology & media, and economics & finance. These cornerstones are beneficial to all students, but there are some specific implications for student-athletes that I want to address. 

For example with communication skills, those are important in dealing with the media and also for interview for internships and jobs.

Economics and finance, definitely important when it comes to understanding contracts, job offers, and making big purchases. So be sure to take some, if not all, of those courses to live by.

 If these courses are not part of your program of study and you can not work them into an elective, see if your college offers a workshop in these areas or see if you can find a video online that will help you improve your skills.

Try, Try Again

I am guessing that you have all heard, that if first you do not succeed, try, try again. Did you win your first race? Did you make your first 3-point shot? Did you make your first goal attempt or score your first kickoff return? I am guessing not. I am sure that you had to practice, practice, practice. You had to continue to try in order to get better. From our failures, we learn so much. We learn to try again, to work harder and to never give up. These are not only great lessons for your sport, but they are great lessons for the classroom and for life.

Think about the failures you have experienced. What lessons did you learn? Could you have worked harder? Could you have practiced more?

Did you try again? If so, did you experience success? Try to connect the dots. Visualize your success.

What does it look like and what steps do you need to make it happen?

You Are A Student-Athlete

Student first, athlete second you may have people tell you that your sport comes first, but the truth is if you do not concentrate on being a student, you will not be able to participate in sports, so you must take care of your academics. You may or may not have aspirations of going on to professional sports, but remember that depending on our sport, only 2-5% go on to professional athletics, so you need to have a career path if professional athletics is not a reality for you. And even if it is, one day your professional career will end, and you will want to have your education. And in order to be a successful student-athlete, time management is going to be essential. Be sure to complete the action plan provided to get additional assistance with time management.

Besides your sport, what do you love to do? If you don't go on to professional athletics, or if you do not want to, what would you do? If you don't know, go speak to your advisor or see a career counselor to help you figure it out. If you do know, start taking courses in that field to see if you really do like that area of study, speak to someone working in the field, or to your professor about the field to learn more about job opportunities in that area.

In Conclusion 

Let's review... The tips & tricks for becoming a successful student-athlete.

You are a successful student-athlete & you know: who you are, what you do, how you function.

When you speak about yourself, be confident.

Remember, be authentic and humble... in the classroom, at practice, in all you do.

Know how you learn & what motivates you, then apply it... in the classroom, at practice.

Think about how proper prior planning can help you as a student, as an athlete, as a campus leader. 

Establish & develop your relationships with your teachers & coaches. 

Branch out when making friends, appreciate the differences in your friends & teammates. 

When you struggle as a student or as an athlete, remember you have options and get help. 

You are under the microscope so act with integrity at all times.

You are a student first and an athlete second. Take care of your academics and plan for your future.