Fall sports are in full swing at Occidental, meaning many first-year athletes have entered a new level of competition. As they adjust to campus life, first-year recruits also navigate the transition from high school to college athletics.
Women’s soccer defender Emerson Shirey (first year) said she appreciates the close bond of her team at Occidental.
“My team here feels a lot more tight-knit,” Shirey said. “It helps that we live on the same campus, so we spend so much more time together outside of the sport than I did with my high school teammates […] We’ll go to practice, then we’ll go to the [Marketplace] to have dinner together.”
Women’s cross country runner Mia Zawisny (first year) said the tight sense of community at Occidental has fostered a greater sense of devotion to her sport.
“In high school I wasn’t really a big fan of cross country, it was never my thing — I’m definitely more of a track runner,” Zawisny said. “But here I feel like I have such a good support system with my teammates and my coach, and I feel like my coach helped fix my relationship with cross country […] It makes me want to try harder during the fall season.”
According to men’s soccer midfielder Lewis Park (first year), the Occidental team demands more dedication than his high school soccer team, especially considering the college’s recent SCIAC success.
“We’re definitely a lot more committed to playing soccer than in high school,” Park said. “The team is coming off of winning the SCIAC, and I know they want to win it again, so [we] freshmen have to help the team be better. […] I think that’s where the difference in commitment comes in.”
Park said the energy of the team drives his personal improvement as an athlete.
“It definitely holds me up to a higher level of accountability, making sure that I’m doing everything right, making sure that I’m staying healthy and not slacking […] It pushes me to become better,” Park said.
According to men’s water polo attacker Daron Alexanians (first year), recruited athletes playing at the college level deal with more pressure than in high school.
“Being a recruited athlete, I am held to a certain standard,” Alexanians said. “If I’m not doing a good job of representing the school, I’m letting the community down.”
Park said keeping each other accountable is a shared responsibility for the soccer team.
“The guys will get on you if you’re not doing your job, whereas in high school I feel like it was more relaxed,” Park said. “There’s definitely more accountability.”
Alexanians said playing water polo at the college level has been a larger time commitment than high school.
“For high school we would have practice two hours a day, and we would have three tournaments a year,” Alexanians said. “Right now we have practice every single day for two and a half hours, and that’s excluding our morning weights and the multiple tournaments we play every weekend.”
Volleyball setter Chloe Jeong (first year) said one of the difficulties of adjusting to college-level volleyball has been properly managing her time.
“Weighing between school and volleyball is challenging right now,” Jeong said. “I have a midterm tomorrow, and we have a game today.”
Zawisny said being a student athlete at Occidental causes unique difficulties with time management due to the fluctuation of college academics.
“Having only two classes a day, which is obviously very different [from] high school, is a lot easier,” Zawisny said. “It only gets harder with midterms now or heavier assignments, so I feel like time management for that has been a little more difficult.”
Jeong said while it can be easy to get overwhelmed by the demanding nature of college academics, her sport is a way to find solace.
“Volleyball is a way to destress and forget about everything that’s going on around me, and it’s a way to clear my mind and put my energy toward something else that I don’t have to think about,” Jeong said.
Shirey said she is able to lean on her team to help navigate the transition to college academics.
“Teammates that took a class before can give you advice on things,” Shirey said. “My teammates and I will often go to the library at night and study together.”
Zawisny said amidst the pressures of being a college athlete, she finds the drive to continue to improve as a runner in the supportive community built around her.
“Knowing that can I do it for my team, my coach or the people around me gives me more motivation to push a little harder to the finish line,” Zawisny said.
Contact Ashley Koontz at akoontz@oxy.edu
