My Story Playing Division 1 Football for a Year

When you think of top athletic universities you may think of Alabama University, Florida University, University of Texas, USC, or any other school in the power 5 division 1 conferences. But many people don't know that top academic universities also have high level sports, maybe not as high level as a power 5 school, but high level, nevertheless. Boston University has a renowned Hockey program that produces many NHL players; Columbia has the top-rated tennis player in all the NCAA, and Lehigh has had a top tier Wrestling program for most of the 21st century. Schools that are very academically inclined do have sports, contrary to popular belief. My first two years of college I participated in one of these school's football programs when I walked onto Lafayette Colleges D1AA Football program.

Coming out of high school I was recruited for mainly division 3 football schools with a few division 1 looks. Some of these schools were Ithaca College, Tufts, Union College, Cornell, Columbia and Lafayette College. Mostly local looks in the New York tristate area, with a look from a New England school in Tufts. Many of these schools liked me for my academic performance on top of juggling a demanding football schedule in high school, while performing at a high level my junior year where I averaged 11 tackles per game at middle linebacker. Many of these schools left it up to me for my senior year; if I had a big one, they would offer me a spot on their team. Things don't always go according to plan, and I tore my ACL in the first scrimmage prior to games, leaving me with no senior season, and no football offer for me coming into college. A couple of the D3 schools said if I rehabbed, I could walk onto the team, but I was not academically inclined enough to get into Cornell or Columbia on my own, so those were off the table. However, one of the recruiting coaches at Lafayette said if I applied Early Decision and got in, I could walk on. Of all these schools I wanted to go to Lafayette the most anyways, so I did what he told me. To my chagrin I got in, but the guy recruiting me hadn't told me he was taking a job coaching football at West Point. I pleaded with the new recruiting director for my region to reconsider but he could not find a spot for me on the team.

I matriculated as a regular student at Lafayette. Missing sports I immersed myself in other athletic endeavors, I rowed for part of a semester, I participated on the club tennis team and was working out every day. A couple of guys from the football team lived on my floor in my dorm and during the spring semester they told me that the team was holding tryouts. Giddy to hear this I went to the tryout. It consisted of a few running drills as well as a few lifting workouts. At the end the coaches told us that there was a 6 am workout the next morning and to show up. Sure, enough only three of us showed out of the ones who went to the prior workout. I proceeded to have the worst workout of my life at this 6 am practice. Prowler pushes, cone drills, med ball pushes all on interval and I was finishing last at everything amongst the other walk-ons. I ended up finishing the workout, almost threw up multiple times and collapsed. At the end the head coach came up to us and asked our positions. One of the kids said Wide Receiver, the other one said Defensive Lineman, I had lost too much weight to say linebacker, so I said safety. He then said congrats we had made the team and to sign up for lifts during the week and told us our practice schedule.

Little did I know I would then proceed to have one of the hardest working years of my life. I was a pre-med student at the time and was taking Biology, Chemistry and Physics that semester. I would constantly sleep through Bio Lab after our 6 am workouts (Bio Lab was at 8 am), I wouldn't pay attention in Chemistry (luckily, I had taken Honors Chem in high school) and Physics was made ridiculously hard by the professor, so it was a constant fight for survival. On top of all this during our spring season, we would spend somewhere between 4-6 hours doing lifts, film, workouts and practice. Long story short, the pinnacle of my college football career was one of our safeties got hurt and I made two tackles in our spring game. Along with letting up a 40-yard touchdown deep in the endzone mostly because I was bad in coverage, good against the run. That semester I also was proud of how well I did academically on top of this pulling a 3.15 GPA that semester taking a grueling science schedule.

I was eager to make a name for myself on this team, so I took a summer class and lifted with the team all summer. I really wanted to make it work, even if I just contributed on specials, but then the injury bug hit me hard. First it was my ankle, then it was my knee again, but the capper was I bulged a disc in my back lifting. This is kind of when I knew it was over and I quit the team 2 weeks into my back rehab. This came at a good time too, because I wasn't doing well in organic chemistry, but managed to pull my grade to a B- by the end of the semester. The team also was not good this specific year and I think our only win was against Wagner College in Staten Island.

What can you learn from a story like mine, and about college football in general?

1. Many College Football players suffer from burnout: I was not the only player who was burning out mid college, and I will not be the last. College football is not only demanding on the body, but at an academically challenging school it makes it twice as difficult. Many of the players on the team were not science majors let alone pre-med majors. Some were engineers and were constantly drowning.
2. Seeking Closure, when it is not always warranted can be dangerous: A lot of what drove me during this experience was the fact that I did not play football my senior year of high school. That constant "what-if" crept into my mind when training in college, and when the signs showed early that I was burning out; I should've quit the team sooner.
3. If you are going to pursue college sports on top of a rigorous academic schedule, it may be smarter to pick a less demanding sport: Many of my friends in my major were on the tennis, swimming and track teams. Obviously, any college sport is demanding, but sports like these do not demand 6 hours of your day to be successful. Many of these students thrived too, using their sport as an outlet rather than as a chore or job.
4. If you are not having fun, not planning on being a coach or working in football, not on scholarship or know you're not going pro (99% of college players) do yourself a favor and just be a regular student and don't be a college football player: There are a very small percentage of college football players who even get the chance to go pro, and many of them go to power 5 conference schools. If you're on scholarship and football is paying for you to go to school, then go for it. If you plan on coaching at the high school or college level post-grad then many times schools like to see you played 4 years of college football so go for it if this is, you. Also, if you generally have fun playing and love the games (everyone does) then keep playing. However, if you are not in any of these buckets (many aren't) do yourself a favor and quit. Football is very different from the high school level to the college level. Practice is more demanding, the schedule is more demanding, and in college you're there to get an education so you can find a job post-graduation.

This was my experience as a collegiate athlete at an academically gifted school. Many people don't think these schools have challenging athletic programs, but they do. Many times, athletes burn out like me, but there are some success stories. However, many of the successful ones had very different college experiences to their peers, and these students know the path they chose. This is not to say if it is your dream to play football at Lafayette College and study Engineering don't go for it. This is more of a cautionary tale as to how it can go south very quickly and understand if you're in this situation, get out before it gets rough for you. I ended up transferring to NYU after finishing my sophomore year at Lafayette College and graduated in 2019.