Balancing Act

When you are being recruited, it is easy to get “caught up” in the hoopla of possibly playing for a top Division I, II, or III school. Regardless of what sport you play or what division you play in, the point to remember is you are a STUDENT-ATHLETE and if you have time (which you probably won’t) you socialize. John Wooden could not have said it better in his book entitled “Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court” he sums it all up in the following excerpt:

“I stressed three important things to athletes before they joined our team and while they were students at UCLA. I told them they were coming to UCLA to get an education, a degree. That, I stressed, should always be first and foremost in their minds. Their education would serve them well throughout their lives. Their physical skills would serve them only briefly. Second on the priority list, I told them, is basketball. This is paying for your education, but it will be meaningful for only a short period of your life now and perhaps after graduation except for a very few. Third on the list of priorities was their social activities. I wanted them to be very clear that social activities were third. I told them, “If you let social activities take precedence over your academic activities, then you will soon lose your basketball activities. If you lose your basketball activities and you lose your academic activities, then you will have no social activities here because you will no longer be a student at UCLA.”