Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Why D-III?

When you're growing up and playing ball, you never think about playing anything but Division-I college ball.  You don't even know anything else exists.  You just watch the College World Series on TV and just know that Florida or Texas or Arizona is going to want you because you're just the best thing ever.  But then you grow up and realize "Oh.  Maybe I'm not cut out for that," and you sort of give up hope of playing in college.  Never fear, Division-III is here.  While it may feel at first like you haven't accomplished your dream of making it big, this option is very beneficial and, in my opinion, even better.

When you play a sport for a D-III school, you know everyone that's playing is playing because they really love it.  There's no incentive to playing here, since there are no sports scholarships.  No scholarships also means we don't have to worry about getting a scholarship taken away if we get seriously injured.  To make the time and energy sacrifice that sports require in college must mean that you're really passionate about what you do.  We play for school pride, for our teammates, and for our own love of the game.

Even though there is some sacrifice as far as time, it's not nearly as bad as it would be in D-I.  Here, we don't practice multiple times a day.  We don't travel across the country for games, causing us to miss days of class at a time.  We're able to put our studies ahead of our sport because that is our actual future.  We're able to have a social life outside of the team and spend time with our families.  These things aren't really possible with the nonstop schedule that Division-I athletes have.  So while it may not be glamorous or fulfill our lifelong dreams of being a semi-famous ballplayer, playing Division-III definitely has its benefits over Division-I.

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