Club sports, living simple life

By Tim Trainor
For The Post

A select few are gifted with enough talent, determination and hard work to become varsity athletes at this university.  Their schoolwork paid for, their classes easier, their lives enriched with travel, fans and respect.

Club sports athletes are not among those select few.

They are no different from you and me.

Snatched from the majority of lazy and out-of-shape college students, these are the overachievers, those holding onto their youth, those still wanting to just play games.

Club sports stars have a daily release from the stress of their lives. Every practice is a chance to laugh, to test themselves physically and mentally and most importantly, to have fun.

I’m not trying to sugarcoat their lives, though.  Athletes on the club sports stage must make enormous sacrifices.

I know.

Last year I was on the men’s crew team and between 5 a.m. practices and 7 p.m. meetings, it was hard to fit in the occasional visit to the library or the night out with friends.

However, when we were out practicing, our blades slicing through the deep, blue water with a rhythm not even Snoop Dogg could match, things made sense.

That skinny, rickety old boat was our escape from this world.  It was free from terrorists and bombings, free from girlfriends and exams.

Sport simplifies life in a way that not many other things can.

Club sports athletes realize this, I guess.

That’s why they are out their practicing when they should be sleeping, paying dues that should go to beer, rent, playing games and planning their future.

And there is little future in their sport. The athletes know this. There are no professional leagues ready to draft them, no multi-million dollar contract awaiting them after school.

They can see the horizon of their athletic careers coming up fast, but unlike many of us, they will ride off into that sunset with their guns blazing.

Many of us look back on a youth filled with fun, laughter and sport. Why did we stop?  Are we too busy to enjoy ourselves?  Are we too old?

If you are interested in a sport, odds are there are people on this campus who play it.

Join them.

Remember, you’re only young once.

— Trainor is a sophomore journalism major who relived his youth when he played club sports with The Post this weekend, especially when he almost drowned in water polo and saw his life flash before his eyes. Send him an e-mail at tt313101@ohiou.edu.