ORONO, Maine — Life as a student-athlete at the University of Maine can be strenuous. They get up, work out in the morning, attend class, practice with the team and attend more classes. Sometimes, after all of that, they have another workout to do.
Some athletes may leave their dorm room at 6 a.m. and not get back until close to midnight.
When the season starts, the pressure of getting work done intensifies. The deadlines for school work approach at a rapid rate, and the rigors of competing multiple times a week can take a physical toll on athletes.
Despite this balancing act, the athletes accomplished a great deal academically over the past year.
During 2013-2014, Maine’s America East “All Sport” grade point average was 3.19. Student-athletes exceeded a 3.0 average for the 11th consecutive year and placed third among the conference schools.
Of the teams above 3.0, four of the women’s teams — basketball, cross country, indoor track and outdoor track — ranked first in the America East Conference for their respective sports. Eleven of Maine’s 17 teams posted GPAs above 3.0.
Overall, 70 percent of Maine’s student-athletes were named to the 2013-2014 America East Academic Fall Honor Roll. The commitment to academic excellence hasn’t gone unnoticed by women’s basketball head coach Richard Barron.
“We are fortunate that we have got really good, focused and committed students,” Barron said. “We have some truly gifted scholars.”
The women’s basketball team earned a 3.34 GPA a year ago and expects to achieve another high average this year. According to Barron, his team ranked in the top 30 nationally in Division I for academics.
He credits junior Liz Wood with being one of his standout performers in the classroom. Wood, a biology major with a chemistry minor, received the 2015 “M” Club Dean Smith Award in February. It is given to Maine’s top male and female student-athlete with outstanding academic and athletic achievement.
Wood also was the leading scorer for the Black Bears, who finished with a 23-9 record, won the league regular-season title and qualified for the Women’s National Invitation Tournament.
“Balancing school work is something you have to adjust to,” Wood said. “The biggest thing is getting into a routine. We have mandatory study halls in the off season and during the season we study a lot together.”
Track and field competitor Wilson Adams, a bioengineering major with a minor in physics, won the male Dean Smith award. He is an accomplished shot-putter and recently was named to the America East All-Academic team along with junior pole vaulter Jaclyn Masters.
Collectively, the women’s cross-country and track and field teams programs have achieved the highest GPA average of all teams at the university. According to junior distance runner Annabelle Wilson, managing academics with athletics is a process that requires time and organization.
“I want to say that juggling school and athletics is a balancing act,” Wilson, an elementary education major, said. “As much as I try to keep it roughly balanced throughout the year, some weeks I’m a little more tied down to my running and other weeks I’m a little more focused on assignments and lesson plans.”
Wilson has benefitted from participating in other clubs and organizations the university has to offer. It helps make her academics less stressful.
“I think the most important thing to ensure is that no matter what you give yourself opportunities to do things you enjoy,” she said. “I love being involved with many aspects of the university beyond running.”
“Having a planner and writing lists for myself really helps. I find that sometimes writing little lists at the beginning of the day is really helpful; it sometimes helps me to set myself little goals to achieve.”
Student-athletes have the opportunity to study in the academic center on the second floor of the newly renovated Memorial Gym building. The room is quaint and quiet and has most of the resources Fogler Library has to offer, such as tutoring rooms and library search databases.
If athletes need extra help in a class, they often go to Ann Maxim, the director of academic support at UMaine. She and her staff try to put athletes in the best position to graduate in their field of study within four to five years.
The academic support system offers a tutoring program that utilizes resources that already are implemented by the school. They also recently developed a peer-mentoring program designed to help new students successfully manage their time with classes and athletics.
“(The peer-mentoring program) is for incoming students who don’t understand how to manage their time along with the 20-hour management (the NCAA’s weekly limit) with their sport,” Maxim said.
While Maxim tries to utilize protocols used across campus, she recognizes travel schedules often get in the way and tries to find alternative ways to help the athletes maintain their academic success.
“We try to accommodate what can’t be met on the campus,” she said. “We strategize in finding ways to be successful.”
According to the UMaine student-athlete class attendance policy, athletes are allowed to miss up to six classes during their season. They are required to address their professor before an absence in order to use an “excused absence.”
If an athlete isn’t able to provide documentation for a missed class, they receive an “unexcused absence,” which has repercussions that are dealt with by athletic director Karlton Creech, the head coach and a sports administrator. UMaine head baseball coach Steve Trimper hasn’t had to deal with this problem but insists he’s had players miss competitions in order get school work done.
“We might leave a kid back from a road trip to get them back for a class,” Trimper said. “But they work on the buses, during travel time. They are motivated to get it done on their own.”
From an academic standpoint, spring sports have a distinct advantage over fall sports. There is a two-week spring break in early March that allows student-athletes to regroup academically while putting in work for their teams.
Trimper said despite the fact most of his athletes are on their spring trip to Florida during that time, they take advantage of that break to get ahead in classes. The efforts have paid off as 24 of the 34 players posted a GPA of 3.0 or higher last year.
He said just because there are no classes doesn’t mean school work isn’t being done.
“Because we have the two-week spring break, people think we are missing a lot of classes,” he said. “They might have a webinar online they have to follow. They do a ton of work on buses and on planes.”
Last year, 149 athletes were named to the America East Winter/Spring Honor Roll and 84 of them graduated last spring.
The commitment of Maine’s student-athletes, the oversight of the team coaches and the backing of the Academic Support staff have been instrumental in helping the school’s athletes excel in the classroom and in competition.