Athlete Adjustment

It is the second month of the school year for our University, but to the class of 2025, it is a new stepping stone for the next chapter of their lives. Especially for our new student-athletes like Geo Lagunas, a member from the class of 2025 from Shirley, NY, who came here to be a goalkeeper for our University Of Hartford’s Division 1 Soccer Team. Geo is only among other first-year students who are just now getting used to the life of a college athlete. At the age of 16, Geo has been given a head start to college, graduating a year before his classmates. To some, that sounds like much pressure. However, it was more of a new opening because, as he stated in his interview, his career was light, being part of one of the best teams in his high school’s history exceeding far in the playoffs. Of course, coming into college, he had to make an adjustment going from the top of his team, playing with people he grew up with, being close with his school’s staff, even from knowing everyone in school to playing with and against a more experienced competition and having to go from a simple high school life. Now, eating, sleeping, and breathing college sports and finding a balance with his studies in chemistry is what he knows. Being far from home in a place he never lived in his personal life is very short by not being around his family and home. Geo chose the University Of Hartford because the environment can be harder and sometimes more violent where he is from. So he wanted to get away to focus on his career and his studies. Geo is not living a lifestyle unique to him but only in other ways. College athletes, especially freshmen, do not just have to worry about how they play in a sport, but they have to make the sport their life, studying, being away from home, and dealing with the intense schedules they have playing against their personal lives. Of course, anyone can say they love playing their sport in high school, but once they step into the college world, does that love stay or dissolve? For athletes, their love for sports will constantly be tested once they get into college.