Normally, 150,000 students a year would receive athletic scholarships. Now that the Coronavirus has reared its ugly head, how can student-athletes safely attend practice when they are unable to physically go to school? How would they acquire their athletic scholarships if they can’t even go to practice? A good amount of students were planning on applying for athletic scholarships to get into the schools they wanted to go to, but with sports being essentially cancelled at the end of the 2019-2020 school year, and no news of them starting back up again for the 2020-2021 school year, now how would they manage to get into their preferred schools? As you can see, this is just yet another thing that the Coronavirus has changed. Keeping these issues in mind, the BV Newsroom asked Sarah Unterholzner, a senior at Bella Vista Highschool who’s in track, and Ashleigh Briggs, a junior at Bella Vista Highschool who plays basketball, a question regarding the newfound problems surrounding scholarships.
With school not being in session and the opportunity to do sports being limited, how does this affect you and you trying to get a scholarship? Sarah Unterholzner: For track, coaches only have my sophomore times to look at if they want to recruit me on their team and provide scholarships. I have been reaching out to coaches at some colleges that I’m interested in and they have all been very understanding with this whole situation, which is nice.
Ashleigh Briggs: It affects us by not getting scholarships…some of the girls on the team only play basketball for the school, so when the schools are saying we might not be having fall sports it’s a bummer because we will be missing a whole year of coaches wanting to look at girls on the team.
What are some things you do to keep your skills at the same level as they were pre-quarantine? Sarah Unterholzner: I’ve been going to the track and I have been running still. On top of that I’ve been doing some home workouts to keep my muscles conditioned. My coaches have been starting to send me some workouts, too.
Ashleigh Briggs: I work out everyday, and I go across the street for like three hours and just play basketball by myself and practice on dribbling and shooting.
Here, we can also see that one's ability to get a scholarship can be weighted by what sport they play. Sarah Unterholzner is a part of track, and since her coaches have her old sophomore times, they are able to look and decide if they would like to put her on their team or give her scholarships. However, Ashleigh Briggs plays basketball, and she does not have an opportunity to get a scholarship anymore, which could ultimately lead her to not being able to go to some of the schools she was planning on going to. Even though Sarah Unterholzner does still get the chance to obtain a scholarship, the times are still only her sophomore times from two years ago. She has likely improved since then, and now the times do not portray her present skills accurately. Colleges will not be able to see her current times, which would represent her abilities more accurately than the times that were recorded two years ago, and their decisions will most likely be impacted by that.
For student-athletes, a large portion of their lives is committed to sports. Now they rarely ever see their teammates, they are unable attend practices, and all games or meets have been cancelled. Everyone had had their lives turned upside down, but it can be argued that athlete's lives have been the most altered. Although it may not seem like it a majority of the time, one day things will eventually open back up; and when school and sports practices begin again, it may take a while for student-athletes to get back into the groove of practicing and being with their teammates again if they haven’t been active over the quarantine. Not only that––but they have to make sure that their skill level hasn’t declined, that everything they’ve been working for hasn’t gone all down the drain.
This quarantine has changed many things, especially for student-athletes. There are some students out there like Sarah Unterholzner, who still have the opportunity to get scholarships, but maybe with some not-so-accurate information, or there are some kids out there like Ashleigh Briggs, who don’t even have an opportunity to get a scholarship anymore. Still, Sarah Unterholzner, Ashleigh Briggs, and many other students are being responsible and making sure that they still workout as often as they can, and practice for their sport, even if they have to do it alone.
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