Being a Hartford student athlete

Going to any school and having the opportunity to play an NCAA Division I sport is a blessing. Between automatically having a group of friends once you get here, to free road trips to play the sport you love, there are a lot of things to be happy about. However, it isn’t all sunshine and rainbows being a student athlete at the University of Hartford.

While different teams follow different practice times, my team gets the earliest slot. Going into my third year on the women’s lacrosse team at Hartford, I’ve learned to prefer waking up at 5 a.m. and practicing from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. Many might think I’m crazy when I say that. However, you wake up and do conditioning or lift and then practice for two hours, but after that, the rest of your day can be devoted to academics and time for yourself.

Now, the word “love” definitely does not apply to the times I want to stay in bed. Out of every other option that would be my preferred choice, but after a while I dread waking up on cold winter mornings to go run sprints. If there could be one thing I could change about being a student-athlete on campus, it would be the support from the entire University at home games. Most of the time, the stands are comprised of family members, other student-athletes, and occasionally administration. If more students were encouraged to come attend games, being a student athlete would be that more exciting.

Aside from some negatives, I could not be happier with my decision to play college lacrosse. Coming into college, I questioned my decision to play because I did not know if I could handle it. Quickly, I realized that if you put hard work in, you will eventually get something in return. During this time, I have become a professional at time management, and keeping a busy schedule, all while still enjoying my time at the University. Contrary to popular belief, from my experience, athletes on campus do not receive preferential treatment, other than having priority registration, which is something to think about when you interact with student athletes because we are just like everyone else. Overall, While this isn’t a Notre Dame or UNC type of school, it fits everything I imagined.

IMAGE COURTESY OF MEGAN MILLER