For some athletes graduating from high school, competitive college sports are the logical next step. If you played on the Varsity team in high school, why not play in college? Another reason an athlete may choose to play a college sport is for scholarship money. A large chunk of money to pay for school would entice most people. Another important consideration is pressure from parents. Some new students feel they need to prove something to their parents or to make their parents proud. These are all valid reasons for considering intercollegiate sports, but each reason has another side to consider.

College sports are a whole new level of competition, stress, and physical activity. Speaking from experience as a starting collegiate soccer goalkeeper, you may find that collegiate sports are not as fun as in high school. College sports are about winning and coaches are brought in to make teams win. The method for winning in all sports is the same: train, push, train, push, punish, push and train some more.

You must be able to handle the stress of training along with the physical aspects of training. You must be willing and able to practice many hours a day, every single day. You may go weeks or months without a day off. Your coach will push you hard, almost to your breaking point. Can you handle it?

Scholarship money may be a big factor when deciding to play a collegiate sport, but consider this: the amount of federal student aid that an athlete can obtain takes into account athletic scholarships. In some cases, you may receive less government funding due to your scholarships so a reduction in your scholarships may lead to higher government aid. However, if you have a large EFC (estimated family contribution on your FAFSA), you may not qualify for federal aid.

Playing an intercollegiate sport due to parental pressure is one of the worst reasons to play. Two major consequences of playing for this reason include burnout and dropout. If you do not really want to play a sport, you will quickly become overwhelmed and overstressed by the training. This stress may affect your schoolwork and cause poor grades and possible school dropout.

There are a few other considerations when deciding to play an intercollegiate sport including possible injury, travel, and classes. An injury of some sort in your career as an intercollegiate athlete is very likely. The injury may be as small as a strawberry in softball or as big as a concussion or broken limb in any sport. You must decide if you are willing to take these risks. Talk to your potential coach about the number of injuries that his/her team typically has during a season to determine the risk level for yourself.
On top of the risks, you must also decide if you are willing to play through pain. You may have to play through large amounts of pain if your coach decides to play through injury. While athletic trainers are there to help you recover from injures over the course of your career, they are also there to get you back on the field/court as soon they can. They are there to make sure that you play, not nurse your wounds back to full health. Many sports risk long term health issues if injuries are not allowed to fully heal.

Intercollegiate athletes are often away from their university to play games elsewhere. The amount of travel depends on the sport and division, but you can expect to be away from your college 2-3 days per week with additional extended travel a few times during your season. Travel is a major advantage of collegiate sports, but time traveling takes away time from schoolwork.

Finally, college is about getting a good education. Your classes should be your number one priority. Remember that a college sport will take significant time away from your studies and limit the number and availability of courses. Some colleges limit the number of credit hours that you may take in a semester. Athletic blocks also restrict your access to certain classes. These limitations could cost you a lot in the long run; many college athletes require an extra semester of classes in order to graduate. This extra time especially applies to students majoring in a technical field such as engineering or programming.

College athletics are a major commitment that should not be taken lightly. A college team can be a rewarding and memorable part of your college experience. Talk to other current college athletes, coaches, and professors to help make your decision. Just be sure to consider the facts carefully as the hype of earning a scholarship to a big school can easily blind you to the decision of what is best for you.

Athletic families emerged. Former athletes encouraged sons and nephews to­ carry on the family legacy, while acting as their trainers. The athletes of this era partook in the diet of an active body, but one that was not very different from the standard Greek diet. They ate whole grains, dry figs and feta-like cheeses. It was a diet high on natural fibres, calcium, minerals and protein, while being moderately slow in terms of carbohydrate absorption, thus promoting all-round good health. And so it continued throughout the 7th century BCE.

Competitions with prizes of monetary value, such as the Panathenaea, continued to emerge in the 6th century BCE, making it possible to earn a good living winning games. Former winners could in turn make money training hopefuls. Towards the end of the century athleticism was in full swing with specialised diets, training regimes, and sleeping patterns.

One runner had acquired great fame on a diet of only red meat, and so started the diet game. Some athletes ate copious amounts of red meat, some swore by pork, some trusted only in goat, and others sought to eat very little and harden the body in that way.

By 449 BCE the Persian Wars had come and gone and the Greek world had changed. A new education system discouraged athleticism, considering it detrimental to both body and mind.

The prejudice of the ‘dumb jock’ was thus firmly established, but that did not stop people from attending the games. Plato himself enjoyed the Olympic Games, ventured far to see them, and gladly spent time with other sports fans. Meanwhile, he also accused athletes of being a sleepy, useless, and unintelligent lot. Diets became more extreme, training became more extreme, and sleeping became more extreme.

So it continued for centuries, the public view of athletes steadily deteriorating. They were best known for their appetites. One athlete was said to have eaten 1.8 stones of meat, 1.8 stones of bread and drank 19 pints of wine, whereas another ate a bull single-handed in one day, a third ate a Persian feast for nine all by himself, a fourth won a great eating and drinking contest, and a fifth was so proud of his overeating that he had it inscribed on his grave stone. Needless to say, ancient athletes often died young.
Under the Roman Empire athletes became unionised in guilds. Overeating was a major problem, which was to be aided with various prescription massages and white meat diets. Many athletes demanded and received state pensions for their winnings, which allowed them to live comfortably on fewer winnings and did nothing to improve their reputation for gluttony and useless excess. Nor did it help that many athletes became involved in illegal activities in order to maintain their lifestyles of luxury.

What took the ancients centuries may have taken us less than 100 years, but the patterns of evolving professional athleticism remain the same. Then again, perhaps so do our lofty ideals of sportsmanship and love for the game, or ‘amateurism’ as it is called in Latin.

This swimming phenomenon proved that the biggest dreams can come true. In a historic series of swimming races, Phelps broke the record previously held by Mark Spitz for more than thirty years. In 1972, Spitz won 7 gold medals at the Olympic Games in Munich, Germany.

The video footage of these Olympic Games will be played by swim coaches for decades to come, but Phelps’ amazing gold streak yields great lessons for all athletes. The commitment, hard work, and drive it takes to achieve such an athletic feat is awe-inspiring. When you look for a way to motivate kids to succeed in sports, look no further than Michael Phelps.

A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Phelps is an unassuming young man of 23 who seems to take each wonderful moment as it comes. His strikingly humble demeanor belies the discipline with which he focuses on each race.

When using Michael Phelps as a role model, be sure to include these four points to motivate young athletes:

1. Set a Personal Goal That Includes Milestones. If you can set your goal with periodic milestones, you will find it easier to achieve your dream. NBC repeatedly reported that Phelps’ coach, Bob Bowman, set goals for the young swimmer to compete in 3 Olympic Games. The Beijing Games in 2008 marked Phelps’ third Olympic experience. How is that for setting an achievable vision?

2. Practice Makes Perfect. No one works harder than Michael Phelps in the pool. It takes mental toughness and commitment to follow his grueling schedule. Natural talent was clearly not enough to achieve everything he did this year in the pool. His narrow focus enabled him to win each race.

3. Improving Your Technique. Although reporters like Rowdy Gaines praised Phelps more for his speed than his stroke technique, it was noted that Phelps improved his breaststroke techniques over the years to become more competitive in individual medley events. Technique is an important aspect of athletics. Encourage children to focus on how they perform in their sport. The end result of winning or losing isn’t the only thing that matters.

4. Getting Competition Experience. Michael Phelps has been to 3 Olympic Games as well as many other international races. His competitive experience is impressive. Even though he is only 23, his international exposure (including attendance at previous Olympics) helped to prepare him mentally for these 8 gold medals in 2008.

Michael Phelps’ Olympic feat of 8 gold medals reminds us that no dream is too big. If you set your sights on an important personal goal, you are one step closer to achieving it. Don’t just become inspired by others. Inspire yourself by achieving your dreams one step at a time.
By Angela Baca

Both teams shot poorly the first half, but the Rams went on a 20-8 run to end the first half and take a 24-22 lead into the locker room. The second half saw six lead changes and six ties before junior Kennith Gober hit yet another big shot for TWU.

With 44 seconds left in the game and the Lions down by two, senior point guard Phillip Brooks drove to the hole, hit the runner, and was fouled. Brooks put the Lions up by one after hitting his free-throw. Brooks would finish the game with 18 points. A quick foul later, the TWU was on the free throw line where Fred Eshon, the Rams best free-throw shooter, would go one for two and knot the game at 58-58. In their final possession, the Lions were unable to get a shot off and instead turned over the ball. The Rams nearly turned over the ball too, but a jump ball gave the Rams one last chance with just three seconds left on the clock. The first shot for the Rams rimmed out, but Gober was there to tip it in as time expired on the clock.

Gober, known for hitting game-winning shots, had 14 points on the night, but the Rams were led by Eshon, who came off the bench to score 18.

The loss dropped the Lions to 8-10 overall on the season and 4-6 in conference play. Langston will hit the road this weekend to face Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, Tex. on February 9th and Houston Baptist University in Houston on February 11th. The Lions will be back in the den on February 16th to face Jarvis Christian College. Game time will be at 7:30 p.m.

Langston enters the tournament with an overall record of 28-5 and riding a 20-game winning streak. This is the Lady Lion’s seventh appearance in the national tournament. Despite posting the fifth best record in the country, the Lady Lions didn’t make an appearance in Wednesday’s final Top 25 poll. Some of the key wins for the Lady Lions this season include beating another two seed in Lee University (Tenn.) and an eighth-seeded Berry College.

“If our ladies go to the tournament and play the way they played some of the out of conference ball games they played earlier this season, no one will be able to beat them,” said Coach Willis.
St. Xavier is also making their seventh appearance in the national tournament. Head coach Bob Hallberg has led the Cougars to a 25-4 overall record this season. SXU, like LU, were the winners of the conference (the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference) and their conference tournament.

The game remained close from the tip. The score was tied six times and the lead changed three times.

Four Lions finished in double figures led by junior guard Lance Sullivan. Sullivan finished with 29 points in 31 minutes of action. Alburey Doss, the RRAC Player of the Week, grabbed his tenth double-double on the season with 15 points and 12 rebounds. Chris Higgins fought through leg cramps to add 12 and Daniel Thomas finished with 10 points.
Most of the offense for the Rams came from Chris Berry and Kennith Gober. Berry finished with 25 points in 37 minutes and Gober scored 20 points after shooting five for 10 from three-point range. Ryan Barnes quietly added 10 points for TWU.

The Lions will face another tough opponent on Saturday when 12th ranked Jarvis Christian College will travel to Langston. The Valentine’s Day game will tip-off at approximately 7:30 p.m.

The Rams overcame a 15 point deficit in the second half to send the game into double overtime. The Lions and the Rams had nearly identical shooting percentages from the floor (LU 50% and HTU 49%) and from long range (LU 44% and HTU 42%), but the Lions shot far better from the charity stripe than the Rams did (LU 75% and HTU 55%).

The Lions had huge games from the starting five. Lance Sullivan led the Lions with 31 points, seven rebounds, and four steals. Alburey Doss finished with his 13th double double on the season. Doss finished with 20 points and 20 rebounds. Alvin Lewis scored 16 points and had eight assists before fouling out of the contest. Daniel Thomas, an Austin native, finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds in front of a large group of family and friends. Chris Higgins was nearly perfect from long range in the game. Higgins finished with 14.
The Rams comeback was due mostly to the hot hand of Gabe Haskins. Haskins came off of the bench and had a game high 33 points and four assists. Darrall Glover also had a big night for HTU finishing with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Two other Rams’ players finished in double figures. James Black had 16 points and seven rebounds, while Robert Hartfield 12 points, five rebounds, and four assists.

The Lions will return to C.F. Gayles Fieldhouse to play their final game of the season against Bacone College on Monday. Monday’s game will also serve as senior night for Charles Loftis and Daniel “Skip” Thomas. Game time is set for 7:30 p.m.

Quarterback Danny Lowery has had to share a majority of the snaps under center the first five games of this season.  This, in part, was due to several injuries he sustained while playing in these games.  However, at Homecoming 2007, Lowery was the only quarterback to play under center, and was able to lead his team to their first conference win.

The game was mostly a defensive struggle, with the Lions getting the better end of the Texas College offense.  Lionel Bibbins was the most disruptive player for Langston University , leading the team with seven tackles.  Five and a half of his tackles were for a loss, with Bibbins reaching the quarterback for one and a half sacks and a forced fumble.

That defensive struggle also was reflected in the amount of penalties both teams acclimated.  Texas College was penalized 12 times for 100 yards, while Langston was penalized 12 times for 131 yards.  Due to these penalties, drives on both ends were often abruptly stopped.  However, it seemed as if the Steers suffered the most, with Texas College often being penalized in the middle of what appeared to be scoring drives.

Texas College ’s only score appeared near the end of the first half, with a 45-yard field goal.  The Steers had several opportunities to get back in the fourth quarter, but Texas College quarterback X’Zavier Bloodsaw threw an interception to defensive lineman Enjai Bush.  This, in effect, stopped any momentum that Texas College had.

The Lions are at .500 for the season, and 1-0 in RRAC (Red River Athletic Conference) play.  They continue their home stand next week against Northwestern Oklahoma State University at Anderson Field on Oct. 13^th at 2:00 p.m.