Managing Mid-Semester

Is it really the end of September? Already? If you’re like most college athletes, you have a pretty rigorous schedule. Maybe, like myself, you hardly noticed the time passing. It’s as though you woke up today and suddenly it is mid-season, mid-terms are rolling around, you can’t seem to find enough time to accomplish everything you need to, and you’re thoroughly frazzled. It’s surprisingly easy to become overwhelmed and lose your focus. As we near this mid-semester point, though, it is important to remind ourselves and our teammates and friends that there is a greater picture here. There are a lot of resources available to us to de-stress. The Health and Wellness office in the Student Union offers short massages, stress management tips, healthy snacks, and more. Dog therapy is generally offered several times a semester. Tutors and mentors are available upon request. As student athletes, we have access to the amazing athletics staff, which includes Kellie Pieper. She is a Sports Psychologist who can help you with any issue, whether it is a sports concern, a school issue, or a personal thing. We have team members who are likely willing to help us through the stress, as well. Don’t be afraid to reach out to others for help. So many of us are used harnessing our inner strength, which is fantastic. However, if we are continuously expending all of this energy and internalizing everything, the stress will catch up to us eventually. Every Division One athlete has an inner warrior, but we also have a whole team full of people just as strong as we are. Not everyone can make that claim, so we may as well utilize these resources. Never be afraid to voice your concerns to others – often the person will be able to relate and offer advice to remedy the problem. Take short study breaks to do something you enjoy, and believe me, you will make it through this!

Under Pressure

The pressure as an athlete, whether collegiate or professional, can be immense. Training, time management, making sure to sleep and eat properly, and keeping your nose clean are all part of the job. In addition, college athletes must maintain the proper GPA, worry about performance in order to maintain a roster spot and scholarship, try to have some sort of social life, and attend seminars or internships or anything that can additionally grow them as a person. I know some people think anyone could do it, but it really is extremely challenging and stressful. Beyond that, we have people examining us constantly. We must be wary of our social media use and make sure everything we do is cleared by compliance. Whether you are a member of a money-generating team or not, the pressure and goals are the same. You had better believe that every team is packed full of athletes working their tails off. Sometimes we may feel the regular student body doesn’t understand all of our responsibilities. It’s worse when we feel other teams at this University don’t give us credit. Many people lack respect for other sports because “they could never do what we do”. Yes, I doubt a 280 pound football player is going to do very well if you throw him into a cross country workout. In the same respect, a 110 pound distance runner won’t fare very well as a defensive end. We need both of these people, though, in their respective areas if we have any chance at those MAC Championships we want to be winning.  It’s not about the competition between the sports here at UB, but the unity. As student-athletes, it is up to us to represent our school, our team, and ourselves in a positive light. Cheering at other sporting events or asking a member of another team how their competition or training has been going can really help to bring us together, as well as bringing us closer to success.  It is much easier to push through the physical and mental exhaustion when a group of your peers is rooting you on. My challenge to you this week, then, is to not just attend the AFA but to be vocal at the event. Maybe get a group to go to the Rowing event the next morning and cheer them on as well. We’re full of talent here; every athlete deserves your full respect and support. The only way to elevate the State University of New York at Buffalo is to lift the other teams up with us as we rise to the top. Success of an individual person or team means hardly anything. We are interested in universal success, and it starts with your success in supporting others.

Reasons You Should...

This week, we have another SAAC body meeting! We had FANTASTIC participation and attendance at our first meeting, and we look forward to even more this week. If you’re not an official rep, that doesn't mean you shouldn't join us. Actually, if you have the availability to do so, you probably should. In case you need more convincing (as I’m sure some of you may), I've compiled a list of great reasons why I should see you all on Wednesday. Without further ado, here it is!

Reasons to attend this week’s SAAC Meeting:

1)      It is at the Newman Center for the first time this year. The meeting starts at seven, buuut if you come at about 6 pm, you can get free food. For anybody who hasn't been there, the Newman Center serves dinner every Wednesday to the community. It’s all home-cooked by the amazing parish members and it is all DELICIOUS! This week they will be serving home-made Polish sausage and side dishes, so if you miss out on this you will probably be super sad and you only have yourself to blame.

2)      We have a ton of awesome activities going on this year! Until you give it a chance, it’s hard to know what SAAC can do for you. Jesse has worked SO hard to plan out the coolest community service activities, and if you don’t know about them it’s difficult to be involved in them. Once you see what they are, though, you’ll want to participate. Don’t miss out on all the fun by being uninformed!

3)      The E-Board is pretty cool. And we’ll talk with you. And then you’ll feel extra cool. Who doesn't want to be extra cool? 

4)      You get to let out your inner artist and be super creative because we are making posters! If you’re not very artistic, don’t worry. Neither am I. Yet I’ll still try to make a poster because sometimes it’s good to laugh at ourselves and be out of our comfort zone (ahh like in last week’s blog? Yes, just like that. Great connection. See? You are creative, being able to make that connection.).  

5)      The E-Board does not contain the only cool people in the room. There will be tons of super awesome athletes there who you can laugh with and make friends with. They’re great and together you and your new athlete friend can be way great and why wouldn't you want to be way great?

6)      Lastly, you can earn Bulls Pride. Remember my challenge from last week’s blog? If not, that’s okay! Read it right now and then if you do what it says you can help boost your team to the prize money reward at the end of the year. What? You earn money for your team through Bulls Pride? See what you miss when you don’t come to SAAC meeting?!

There! I hope you are all thoroughly convinced and that I see your sunshine faces on Wednesday at 6 or at least at 7! Last note-don’t forget to bring your completed Bulls Pride logs.  Happy Monday and GO BULLS!

Stepping Out

How many times have you heard it from your coaches? "Push; if you're not uncomfortable, you're not doing it right!" That is pretty great training advice, but as we all know, we learn things from our sports that help us beyond the competition area. Stepping outside of your "normal" and trying new things can be strange at first, but it definitely pays off. Many of us are settled into the school "groove" at this point. We've established a bit of a routine. Many of us spend a majority of our time with our teammates. We see them at practice, often we live together. There are 18 Varsity sports programs here at SUNY at Buffalo. How many people from other teams have you met? How many names have you learned and remembered? How many games/competitions have you attended? These other teams are just as busy as you are. They are people of the highest quality. Although they may spend their practice time in the pool while you're on the turf, you have more in common that you think. Don't believe me? Go watch them compete. They've got the same grit and drive that you possess. There have been SO many competitions this year already. If you haven't attended a single sporting event yet, you're missing out. There is a crazy useful website http://www.ubbulls.com/landing/index where all the sports teams are listed. There are links to every single schedule for every single team. If you're not going to support the other members of this school who tough it out day in and day out like yourself, you miss seeing awe-inspiring things like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGgC9XS7DAU
How about the unbeaten Women's Soccer team? Have you see those XC runners running on pure guts?
How about UB Volleyball traveling to USF to show them how we do it in NY? (They won by the way).

Or our footballers scoring 22 points in the 4th quarter against Army to nearly take the game?


Yeah, you're team is the coolest and it might seem easier to spend all of your time with them as opposed to being slightly uncomfortable and interacting with new people (scary, right?). In the end, though, you have limited time here. There are so many other people from all over the world on other teams (and, believe it or not, some NARPS can even make great friends) who can make a huge impact on you, if only you give them the chance.  My challenge to you is to use the time between now and the next SAAC meeting (September 24) to befriend an athlete from a different team. Bring them to the next meeting (whether they're a SAAC Rep or not!), come introduce yourselves to me at the beginning of the meeting, and then sit together. MAJOR Bulls Pride points and respect to you for going out of your comfort zone and being part of something bigger.

Labor Day

Happy Labor Day everyone! Labor Day… that’s kind of a weird holiday to think about. We get a day off at the very beginning of the school year. No classes, maybe grill out with some friends. What did we do to earn this glorious late summer day to do with what we will? Well, since pre-season started two weeks ago and almost all of the UB student athletes trained the entire summer, I like to think maybe that is part of why we are gifted a low stress day. Face it – we work very hard. If we want to keep the roster spot, we must earn it. Of 14,473,884 undergraduate college students in the United States, just 139,063 of them are Division 1 athletes. That is roughly 1% of the college population. Just 1%. Yeah, those early morning practices are sometimes the last thing we want to think about. The burning muscles during practices and the sore ones after. Seeing all the other kids eating way too much dessert at D-Hall and fighting with all your will power to restrain yourself. Doing assignments way in advance because you travel the date they’re due. Having the chance to go see a new movie but instead being in bed at a decent hour because, well, that early morning practice I mentioned earlier is still there. Whether you rest or not, that alarm clock is still going off and you don’t have the luxury of hitting snooze. But then you get to that awful practice and your best friend (and also your teammate) is there to make fun of you for looking like a zombie. And working out beside these teammates, it makes the work part feel more like fun. And as you’re practicing your sport, you remember how much you freaking LOVE your sport. The recovery shakes after – better than that D-Hall junk. And who needs that new movie when that one teammate’s personality is a free show on the daily. Any work you’re missing or doing early, you have an Athletics staff as a safety net to ensure you stay sharp as a student as well as an athlete. And can we just think about the amazing apparel we receive for free? Yes, student athletes put in our fair share of labor. And to tell you the truth, we all have room to work harder. To take the University at Buffalo to the level we need to be on, we’re going to all have to think and train like champions 24/7. The best news though? We’re not alone. Talent wins games, but teamwork wins championships. We have the best sources of support working through our labors with us. So this Labor Day, take a little time to relax. The fact that you’re here tells me this: you’ve earned it.