Whenever we think of our teachers, our first thought usually isn’t their college life. But, not surprisingly, many of them were former college athletes in their days. They weren’t always the person handing out homework for students to complete. They used to be the ones receiving the homework.
In our school, we have teachers that played soccer, football, tennis, volleyball and basketball (just to name a few sports) when they were in college. So they all know the stress of having homework to do on top of practice. So they had to come up with ways where they could fit everything in and maintain good grades.
Eighth grade English teacher Jennyfer Wilson is a former basketball shooting guard. She was on full scholarship with the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She had her harder times being eight hours away from home.
Wilson said, “ There were several times that I wanted to quit, but I didn’t because I knew it would all be worth it in the end.”
Wilson offers advice and said, “This will be the hardest time of your life, but you can get through it.”
Her academics were always her number one priority. She made sure she had enough study time, so she could have good grades to stay on the basketball team.
Sixth grade health teacher Christopher Tromm is a former baseball second baseman for Penn State Altoona.
Tromm said, “I always made sure to try my hardest to not let my team down.”
Tromm always made sure to have the hard stuff down, such as school work. He knew in order to be the best athlete for his team, he needed to have a solid academic foundation.
Reading specialist teacher Annie Rupp is a former volleyball middle hitter for Penn State Altoona.
Rupp said, “Academics were always my first priority through college, since I wanted to be a teacher I made sure I was getting everything done that needed to be.”
Yet, Rupp wanted to make sure she was good academically, she also wanted to be a good player for her team.
Rupp said, “Advice I would give to my college self would be to hit the weight room, even though I was tall, I was not as strong as I should have been.”
Seventh grade English language arts teacher Randi Hovan is a former basketball player from Susquehanna University.
Hovan said, “While having the highest GPA on the team, my academics were my number one. I just didn’t want to let my team down. I knew if I didn’t work my hardest; I wouldn’t play my best, which would lead to losses.”
While some teachers may have only focused on getting their degree in college, others had extra activities outside of their school work.
So, whenever we are feeling stressed or overwhelmed with what we have going on, don’t be afraid to ask our teachers here at school for a little bit of help. This shows that anyone can do hard stuff. Just because something is hard doesn’t always mean it is bad.
Even our teachers were able to balance it all, so they can be here to teach us how to do it too!
