Submitted By Dr. Paul Nesselroade
Every so often the growing divide on campus between student-athletes and the general student population comes up as a point of discussion. As someone who loves and deeply appreciates athletics, I am thankful to see the topic raised. I was a student-athlete myself, and I have served for many years as a university and high school coach. Yes, there is a divide on campus, and it seems to be growing. I sometimes think there are two different Asbury’s attempting to inhabit the same space. The remedies I typically hear involve educating the general student population about the additional burdens carried by student-athletes, followed by a request for everyone to be more understanding and supportive of them. To be sure, there are challenges with being a student-athlete, but there are also challenges with being a student-musician, student-director, student-officer, student-worship-leader, student-two part-time jobber, student-anything. And yet these additional burdens carried by so many don’t seem to create the same sort of campus divide. So what is going on here?
I believe that at the core is a struggle between two different value systems, each assigning different meanings to the shared experiences of university life. Attempts to resolve the problem by urging greater understanding by the general student population is simply to address the effect, not the cause.
Can I offer a different suggestion? Putting back on my student-athlete hat, I’d like to challenge more of us to take full advantage of the opportunity we are being given to expand ourselves while at Asbury. I want to strongly encourage us to expand our friendships well beyond our teammates; expand our interests well beyond sports. We need to develop our sense of who we are and who God might be calling us to be. In a phrase, we need to become much bigger than our sport. As we do this, I believe the divide between “us” and “them” will shrink. Other students will begin to see us as fellow travelers, walking down the same challenging path to personal growth and self-expansion. They might start to think of our teams as representing the entire campus and not just ourselves; more of them might actually start coming to watch our games, and more of us might start going to events that feature them. After all, isn’t that what a university campus is supposed to be like?
I believe there are two reasons student-athletes may avoid taking up the challenge. One is pride. That is, we really do think of ourselves as better than other students. We enjoy the divide between “us” and “them” and we’d like to maintain it. A “coming together” will only occur if the general student population adopts our value system. They need to validate us by tolerating our social exclusivity and entitled mentality; then come to our games and cheer us on. The other reason is fear. We are afraid to try new experiences. We find it safer to stay within the bubble of our team, our sports identity, than to venture out and risk failure. But this doesn’t have to be your reality. Don’t let pride or fear stop you from growing. You’re only here for a few years; then “real life” rushes in. Take full advantage of the growth opportunities placed in front of you.
Yes, there is value to be placed on athletic experiences – let me be the very first person to say that. Striving for athletic excellence and being a part of a team is incredibly enriching, but there is so much more to life. It is perhaps understandable for an incoming 18-year-old to primarily think of themselves as a point-guard, second-basemen or center-back; but it would be a sad testament to both a personal and community failure if they left here with the same picture. We must remember that athletics play but a supporting role at Asbury, serving the larger and more transformative goal of having a quality Christian higher-education experience. This should be the basic shared value that unites us all.
If you would like to correspond about these ideas, please don’t hesitate to contact me by email.
You can contact Dr. Nesselroade at paul.nesselroade@asbury.edu
