Shelby Hinton

Vaught’s note: Shelby Hilton, 18, of St. Petersburg, Fla., is a freshman gymnast at the University of Kentucky and communications broadcasting major. She takes a look at the way student athletes are viewed on campus as well as sharing a few of her career dreams and aspirations.

By SHELBY  HILTON

Student athletes feel like they are sometimes poorly represented. Many people think they walk around on campus owning the place, not having to attend class and have tutors that write their papers. Life of a college athlete is a lot of work. Student athletes have the same amount of homework like a normal college student plus four hours of practice five days a week. When they have to travel for a sporting event, they do not get the weekends. Student athletes are busy 24/7 and have people watching them like a hawk, making sure they are in class and have all their homework complete.

Gymnast Kayla Sienkowski, a sophomore, thinks that it is not hard to manage academics. It is not hard to her because it is mandatory to get your study hall hours in and have tutors to help them with their homework. She has to get a 3.0 GPA or above to stay out of trouble and study hall hours. Managing her time is not a problem. She has been use to managing her time ever since she started gymnastics. Sienkowski had also explained to me that she gets absolutely no free time. Her weeks and weekends consist of class, gymnastics, tutors and studying.

I am on the gymnastics team here at the University of Kentucky. I wanted to investigate on what life is like to other students about student athletes. Danielle Develle, sophomore, thinks that all the athletes are full of themselves. “They do not work hard like the rest of us; everything is just given to them,” Develle said.

Student athletes are given many stereotypes around campus. Another athlete, Holly Cunningham, thinks that a lot of athletes do portray a bad reputation for them. “Some are just immature and don’t know how to respect other people,” said Cunningham.

Student athletes want to have a good reputation around campus and let other students know it is not all what they think. It comes down to tremendous hours of homework and dedicating your week and weekends to your sport. You have to stay on top of your grades and not let them slip; otherwise you have a great chance of having your scholarship taken away.

For many athletes, this is a gift they are given. Not all athletes are smart enough academically to get into a university or a prestigious school. Having a scholarship is the only way they can do it and even afford it. This gives them a great opportunity and a great future to reflect on.

Being an athlete you want to have a job that has something to do with sports because that is what you know. A popular job many athletes want to have is to become a sports broadcaster. That is the biggest dream of mine. Ever since I was little, I would sit in front of the camera and pretend I was on air talking to thousands of people about gymnastics. I feel this would be a great job for me because I have dedicated my life to gymnastics since I was 4 years old.

I am great with managing time and I am never late. This is important when you become a sports broadcaster because if they don’t have you they don’t have someone to tell the stories. They also want people who are very familiar with each sport. Being a sport broadcast I would emphasize what athletes really go through and how they live their life once they become a college athlete. It takes determination, dedication and discipline.