Not everyone can handle the demands of being a student-athlete.
Braylyn Floyd has been playing volleyball for four years. She has experienced both club and high school volleyball and was ready to take on college. In Fall 2023, Floyd enrolled as a freshman at Point University, studying exercise science and joining the women’s volleyball team.
“College sports are much more demanding than high school,” said Floyd. “I would have workouts at 5 a.m., then classes from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., and finish my day with a night practice.”
Floyd struggled heavily with transitioning from high school to college regarding athletics and academics. She found herself falling behind quickly.
“I wasn’t so much physically hurting, but mentally hurting,” expressed Floyd. “Between not only practices but team bonding, team meetings, and personal training, then on the school side of things, classes, homework and tutoring, it just became too much for me.”
Floyd struggled to find time to study and keep up with her grades. She looked to study on the weekends but couldn’t help the social temptations that come with being a young college student on the weekends.
The Point volleyball team didn’t pay much attention to grades at first. Once Floyd started to fall behind drastically, coaches began to enforce some rules. One specific rule included no one was to participate in games unless their GPA withheld a certain standard. The fall of Floyd’s grades led her to spend time stuck on the sidelines.
“My coaches wanted to help me,” said Floyd, “but at that point, I was too far behind to catch up for that semester. I ended the semester failing my classes and am currently academically suspended from Point University.”
Floyd was one of the few players on the team to fail out. Moving forward, the Point volleyball coaching staff is now taking the grades of their players much more seriously.
“College is hard. Playing a sport while in college is even harder,” said Floyd. “It’s not for everyone, and it wasn’t for me. To be a student-athlete, you must be motivated and disciplined enough to make certain sacrifices, and I couldn’t do that.
Floyd is currently unenrolled from school and has moved back home. She works at a physical therapy clinic as a physical therapist technician.
Floyd advises anyone aspiring to be a student-athlete “to stay organized and on top of your work. Don’t catch yourself falling behind.”
