Students reflect on past involvement in sports

The raw emotions of the pregame feeling, doing well during a game and hearing the crowd cheer are left in high school when students leave their love and passion of sports for college.

Although Billy Cruz, a senior sports management major from Beaumont, played multiple sports since he was five years old, he focused on baseball because he said it was what he loved and had the most potential in. As offers came in during his senior year of high school, Cruz said he wanted to chase his dream of baseball, but the offers fell through, and he realized the importance of college and a degree.

A couple years ago, a Lubbock select baseball team approached Cruz to be a coach, he said. With being in the organization for over two years, Cruz said he loves coaching and teaching all he knows.

“I’m very invested in the kids and the organization,” he said. “Something I really love to emphasize being a coach is teaching not to take anything for granted – none of the moments.”

Cruz said he looked up to his coaches as a young player and paid attention to everything they did, so now in that role, he has more of a responsibility.

“It’s different being that the roles are switched,” he said. “Having these kids listen to you and understand you just made a difference in their game is such a rewarding feeling.”

Even though Cruz said he always wanted to be playing on the field, he knew baseball would be part of his life forever and at least can instill that love in the young players.

“I’ll forever miss the game,” he said. “It’s something you can’t replace, even coaching.”

Cody Chisum, a sophomore kinesiology major from Lubbock, said she played volleyball, basketball and soccer while growing up. With her high school not having a soccer team, Chisum said she committed to basketball and volleyball.

As her second year being away from the sports, Chisum said she has extra time in her schedule from not practicing everyday and having two games a week.

“I miss it because that’s what I did for so long,” she said.

With spending a great amount of much time with teammates, Chisum said she misses the team aspect of being around players throughout the day and going out of town with them. She said team sports taught her lessons on working with others and strengthened her character, especially after a tough loss.

“That’s what I grew up doing, and I know it made me a better person today,” she said.

Jake Poole, a senior marketing major from Denton, said he was involved in baseball and football. For football, Poole said he enjoyed watching the games on television and knew he would like playing it. Middle school was his first opportunity to pursue it, he said, and he played football throughout all of high school.

Since graduating and being in college, Poole said it is nice having a break and have the leverage to focus more on school and other aspects of life.

“I do miss the competitive aspect of everything I played because you can’t really get that anywhere else besides doing intramurals,” he said. “It’s the closest I can get to that without being on an actual team.”

Poole said participating in sports taught him strong life lessons that molded him into the person he is today, including moving on from failure and the importance of working as a team.

“Not only does it keep me physically active and therefore healthy, but it teaches a bunch of life lessons that you’re not going to learn in the classroom,” he said.

http://www.dailytoreador.com/lavida/students-reflect-on-past-involvement-in-sports/article_c5f20586-e46f-11e8-b101-6f100cde477a.html