Moving from a queen-size bed, fully functioning air conditioning and home-cooked meals to egg-crate mattresses, muggy classrooms and dorm food is enough of a shock to set a typical freshman back a couple days. Add a pair of football practices, weight room workouts and summer classes to the mix and it’s enough to drive an Athens newcomer batty.
That, coupled with the fact that there’s not thousands of other freshman in the same boat, makes for a potentially tough transition for Ohio’s incoming class. Rebecca Thacker, an associate professor of human resources management at OU, realized that void and launched a program in April 2011 to ease new student-athletes into sync with their new teammates and schedule.
For some, it isn’t easy. Almost 40 percent of the Bobcats’ current roster is from out-of-state. And for those who reside inside Ohio’s borders, few towns have a feel similar to Athens.
For players like Malik Rodriguez, a freshman wide receiver from Brooklyn, N.Y., it’s not the distance from home that defines the transition, but the culture and fast-paced itinerary. Having a confidential sounding board — in his case, redshirt junior receiver Mario Dovell and redshirt senior Bakari Bussey — has helped him bridge the gap between his life in Brooklyn and with the Bobcats.
“It’s more comfortable to talk to somebody that’s more like you,” Rodriguez said. “When you talk to someone like a teacher, professor or coach, you hold back with some things you say because you don’t want to say the wrong thing.”
The informal freshman mentorship program matches each volunteer upperclassman — nine this season — with a freshman. The mentors aren’t responsible for particular duties, but have the responsibility of guiding their mentees through do’s and don’ts on campus, how to juggle their hectic schedules and balancing work with play.
Thacker stressed the importance of student-athletes having a like-minded sounding board to turn to, regardless of circumstance. Whether its homework or homesickness, she said the mentors are always there to help.
“When we have a mentor meeting, we have a rule that what we say in this room stays in this room,” Thacker said. “There’s no interference from the coaches.”
Aside from the emotional appeal of the program, mentors guide the freshmen through their day — quite literally. More so than most other students, student-athletes balance a meticulously planned schedule. Workouts are scheduled around classes and classes are scheduled around practices. And when classes and practices are finished for the week, road trips often take over the weekend. Days are long and taxing.
“It’s not high school football anymore,” said Jake Schany, a freshman linebacker from Blair, Neb. “You basically wake up at 6:30 a.m. and sometimes I don’t get home until 11 p.m. It’s a 15-16 hour job right now.”
Freshman running back Daz’mond Patterson is unlike other newcomers, in the respect that he’s no longer new. Patterson arrived on campus Spring Quarter and worked his way through the spring season and summer workouts with the team.
Within months, he moved from the definite new kid on the block to being as established as a freshman can be.
Although he’s included in the program, he said team leaders lent him a helping hand far before most of the other freshmen arrived on campus.
“When I first came in, I was definitely the new guy,” he said. “I wasn’t the only one, but the rest were from junior college so they weren’t treated like I was. There was nobody on the team that didn’t take me under their wing.”
It’s not only the incoming class that reaps the program’s benefits. Thacker said she receives rave reviews from the upperclassmen as well. She said seniors feel like they’re replenishing and improving upon the team’s leadership base, which they hope will breed continued success.
Corey Hasting, a redshirt senior defensive lineman, was part of the inaugural group of mentors. He said that it’s rewarding to see players staying out of trouble and adjusting well to their new jam-packed lifestyles.
“When you’re a freshman, you just want to be part of the team,” Hasting said. “You want to be in the cool crowd, per se.”
Since the program’s inception, the Bobcats have not lost a mentee to homesickness or academic problems.
There aren’t any immediate plans to expand the program to other sports, but the Bobcats’ dedication to their youth has not gone unnoticed.
“There has to be something that tends to the emotional side for these guys,” Thacker said. “They’re not just players, they’re not just students, they’re kids with feelings and emotions.”
jr992810@ohiou.edu
