Athletes Balance Prospects of Professional Sports, Professional Careers

While the dream sounds amazing, few collegiate stars move from varsity practices to big league starts.

According to studies by D. Stanley Eitzen, former president of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport and author of Fair and Foul: Beyond the Myths of and Paradoxes of Sports, there are almost two million male football, basketball and baseball high school athletes, 68,000 of which play at the collegiate level, and just under 2,500 of which play professionally.If only .13 percent of all high school players make it to the professional level, where do athletes find the motivation to continue playing through their college years?

John Hester, a senior economics major at Stanford University, catches for the Cardinals. Along with five of his teammates, Hester was selected in the 2005 Major League Baseball First-Year Player draft during his junior year. While the other five signed contracts, Hester stayed to become a second-year Stanford starter. He saw no reason to leave, since he didn’t perform as well as he could have during his junior year, nor was the money offered enough to keep from his senior year of college. While five draftees from one school sounds high, it’s not atypical for a Division 1 powerhouse like Stanford. Watching friends move on to MLB has only helped excite and motivate Hester and his teammates.
John Hester, #17, catcher for the Stanford Cardinals. See his full profile. Courtesy of stanford.edu.
“I think every collegiate baseball player has a dream of one day playing professionally, and they just followed their dream," Hester says.

Part of that dream is practicing and playing constantly. While the average student has courses, homework and jobs to balance, the college athlete also has a rigorous playing schedule to add to that work load.

For Daniel Pegoraro, a senior applied economics and management major at Cornell University, hockey is a full time job. In a typical week, the team spends Monday through Friday practicing and lifting for five hours. On Fridays and Saturdays, the team prepares with videos and pre-game skating for the entire day. In the end, they spend up to 30 to 35 hours preparing not only for the next game, but for life after the Ivy League.
Daniel Pegoraro, # 15, Cornell forward for the Cornell Big Red. See his full profile. Courtesy of cornellbigred.com
“Trying to become a professional hockey player is a road that is always under construction," says Pegoraro, a native of Toronto, Ontario. “My game isn’t perfect and never will be."

Cornell is no small name in the hockey world. Two former Cornell players opened the 2005-2006 season on NHL rosters, and six more play for the American Hockey League. Pegoraro says that every Big Red player has professional hockey aspirations, and many seniors hope to earn semi-pro or pro contracts by the end of the season.

“I want to try and continue to play hockey in North America, but if there is no opportunity for me here, then I will try my skill in Europe," he says. “If that doesn’t work out, then I will be looking for a job in the United States."

Not all college athletes are looking straight to the big leagues. Christopher Kenny, a senior history and political science with secondary education major at Monmouth University, knows that playing at a mid-level Division I school makes playing in the NBA unlikely. Instead, Kenny’s main motivator this season was to win the conference championship and reach the NCAA tournament. Even with those goals, the thought of not playing after college isn’t a pleasant one.
Chris Kenny, # 35, guard for the Monmouth Hawks. See his full profile. Courtesy of monmouth.edu.
“I think all athletes at the college level who do not make it professionally are worried about their futures," Kenny says. “Athletes put so much emphasis and time into their sport, and when that comes to a sudden end, it does make you nervous about what and how the rest of your life will end up, especially not having one sport to fall back on anymore."

The amount of time these students spend playing their sport is a problem when transitioning to life after college. John Wolohan, associate professor and chair of the Sports Management and Media Department at Ithaca College, knows that the probability of these student athletes moving on to the professional level is minimal.

“One of the problems with sports today is that with these kids being so focused, they become drained," Wolohan says. “A coach’s fear is that their athletes are one-dimensional, that they’re baseball players or football players. The danger is that (a) there’s going to be burnout, and they’ll wake up one day and won’t want to play the sport and (b) you’re body will break down and not built other muscles."

One of the biggest concerns with college athletes is that the real world transition will be difficult. Many, in fact, don’t have any idea how to do it.

Adrian McBride, a former NFL wide receiver with the Cleveland Browns and St. Louis Cardinals (now the Rams), played at the University of Tennessee and University of Missouri before going pro. He knows that not all athletes are prepared for the future.
Adrian McBride helps athletes with the transition between collegiate sports and the working world. See his full profile. Courtesy of lifeaftersports.org.

“They are barely thinking of what is going on this Saturday night, not three to five years down the road," he says. McBride co-founded the consulting group Life After Sports with his wife, Julie. Their goal is to enhance life skills for college athletic departments and prepare student athletes for future careers. While McBride thought moving on after the NFL would be smooth sailing, he found he wasn’t prepared for life after the game.

“[College athletes] have been catered to and their hand has been held from day one," he says. “When they go out into the real world for the first time, many have no support system built in to lean on."

There are opportunities for college athletes that still involve the world of athletics, including coaching at high school, college and professional levels. McBride has helped former athletes move on to careers in sales, marketing, engineering, financial planning and education based on skills they learned on and off the playing field.

Hester realizes that many people see professional athletics as unrealistic, but the goal of playing at such a high level helps these athletes find jobs after graduation.

“In essence, professional athletes are entertainers, a kind of actor that people come to see play," Hester says. “Professional sports may seem unrealistic, abut they allow for the existence of collegiate sports while helping to provide an education to student athletes. It has allowed me to go to Stanford and get a great education."

Wolohan believes that there are two types of college athletes: those who go to school for an education, like Hester, and those who go for sports.

“If you take those [latter] kids out of the equation, the ones who study will do fine," Wolohan says. “Everyone coming out of college is looking for a job, and I do believe that college athletes have a leg up on the regular student population."

Few plan on abandoning their sport entirely. While Kenny is weighing options that include law school and helping to run the independent New Jersey pharmacy his family has owned for 35 years, coaching remains near the top of his list.

It’s hard to just walk away from a sport that has consumed my whole life. My coaches over the years have taught me so much. Hopefully one day I can be a part of the game again as a coach and influence players in a positive manner."
- Chris Kenny, on his future in basketball after college

Like Kenny, Pegoraro keeps his dream alive but grounded in reality. He hopes to start playing on a farm team next year before working his way up into the big leagues.

“I understand that I won’t be playing professional hockey next year," he says. “It might take two years; it might take 10. I will have to see how everything goes."

The odds of playing professionally are slim, and few athletes make big bucks at any level. But for athletes who hit the books as often as they hit the court, rink, or diamond, the future doesn’t seem so uncertain, even for those who are in the midst of deciding what to do after graduation. Hester is waiting to see if he will be drafted by an MLB organization again.

“I think if baseball doesn’t work out, I will just weigh my options and see what’s best for me."

Despite his budding baseball career, Hester’s life is as up in the air as most other college seniors facing the infamous real world.