With tournaments spanning from Arizona to Florida, Ohio’s men’s and women’s golf teams have traveled a combined more than 5,000 miles and 80 hours to compete this semester.
Even with Ohio’s lengthy trips and lack of top five finishes in the past year, the Bobcats’ coaches work to ensure that the hours their golfers put in are consistent in the classroom as well as on the course.
“We take a lot of pride in having a high grade point average,” said women’s coach Kelly Ovington. “The girls sacrifice a lot to maintain their grades, and if they’re not working on the golf course, they’re working on their school work.”
Over the course of the spring season, the teams have combined to miss at least six days of class because of tournaments in the likes of Rio Verde, Ariz., Hilton Head, S.C. and Ocala, Fla.
According to studies cited by CBS in 2011, Division I male and female athletes are, on average, consumed by 30-plus hours of their respective sports. And as the men’s coach Bob Cooley said earlier in the season, the golfers have to make up any late work that was assigned when they were gone.
“Getting a degree and getting their work done is still a priority,” Cooley said. “The kids have to coordinate with their teachers for whatever work they miss.”
Studies show that, on average, the typical student athlete struggles more in the classroom than an average student. A study by the College Sports Project depicts that recruited male athletes from Division III institutions in the mid-2000s average a 2.84 GPA, and recruited female athletes from the same colleges and universities average about a 3.18 GPA. There is little recent research available about Division I student athletes’ GPAs.
What those studies don’t show, is the time constraints an athlete has and the balance it requires to excel in a sport and in the classroom.
“It can be really hard to manage the hours you put on the green and in the classroom,” sophomore golfer Angela Codian said. “School work is one of the most important things as a college athlete, but luckily we have (Ovington) and seniors that keep us on track.”
Codian mentioned that seniors Kristen Helmsdoerfer and Kara Brinkmann, along with Ovington, have set a precedent for the Bobcats to follow in the classroom. Both seniors spent their first year with the Bobcats as part of a team that amassed a 3.83 cumulative GPA — good for the best in the nation during the 2010-2011 season.
Ohio Athletics declined to provide the golfers’ current GPAs or scholarship standing for this article.
“Our coach really keeps us in check,” Codian said. “She’ll check up on us once a week and make sure we’re doing our work and seeing how our grades are doing.”
The coordinating that is involved when dealing with student athletes is something that is shouldered mostly by Ohio Athletics.
Roger Aden, a professor who advises and teaches in the School of Communication Studies, said he hasn’t had much trouble working out scheduling with athletes over the years, as that is handled by Athletics.
Aden said that the last time he taught a golfer, which was a few years back, he didn’t have any problems catching up on missed work.
“In my experience, most student athletes first meet with an academic advisor in Athletics to work out a preliminary schedule that works with their practice and travel schedule,” Aden said. “Then, with priority scheduling, they simply enroll in the courses, which work with their schedules.”
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