Bloomsburg offers many different sports you can play whether it be division based for club. People have different reasons for taking them up as an extracurricular. It is a great way to meet friends while staying healthy. I have never felt passionate or wanted to play sports in college. Therefore, I wanted to get an insight on those students who have experienced this type of lifestyle. I reached out to a variety of students to I wanted to know which sports they play or played, how they balance their academics and social life within their schedules, and if they had any regrets.

Kate Lindholm

Junior Deaf and hard of hearing education major

Volleyball

In the beginning, I felt balancing all responsibilities was tough. I noticed I would spend more time on one thing whether it be school or volleyball and not efficiently do both equally. However, after a few weeks, I adjusted this and am able to spend adequate time on both.

As student athletes, I believe we are expected to have above a 2.5 GPA but as a team, as a team we average our goal to be a 3.5 GPA.

While having all of this on my plate, I am still able to find some time for friends on weekends. During the week, on the contrary,  I do not have much of a social life. I will only have time during the week to see friends if I can get ahead on my workload. 

I am definitely happy with my decision to play college volleyball. It has taught me a lot about time management, holding myself accountable in the classroom, on the court, and in other, more personal, aspects of my life. 

I have met a lot of great people through volleyball and my life wouldn’t be the same without it. Not many people realize how many hours of hard work go into being a college student athlete, but everyone is worth it. I am grateful for all of the opportunities volleyball has created for me outside of the sport, and I know it will create more for me in the future.

Hailey Sweeney 

Junior ASL/ English Interpreting Major

Club Volleyball

It was a little difficult to balance playing sports with my academics because practices. Practices were held late at night and we had tournaments and games on weekends. Having said that, I had a little free time to get things done but it also helped build on good time management skills. 

Playing sports introduced me to a lot of friends in different relationships and we interact a lot with other teams. I stopped playing club sports after my sophomore year because of personal reasons However, I definitely enjoyed my time that I spent playing. 

Ezra Ranco 

Masters program Mass / Interpersonal Communications major 

Track and Field 

Football 

I participated in Track and Field along with Football. It was very tiring mentally and physically because of constant demanding of time and effort that would sometimes send me in orbit from being overwhelmed.

 In order to maintain eligibility to play both sports it required a 2.0 GPA. It was very easy to maintain but also could get from under you if you did not pay attention with balancing everything. 

It made my social life better but also made it difficult to win over relationships or long term friendships because of traveling late, early practice meetings and team gatherings. Typical college plans were not or very limited unless people made special schedules and guidelines for you to correspond with your schedule. Whether I have any regrets, yes and no. However, it overall made me a better person with juggling a lot and making time for things you really want!