Wrap Up- My College Athlete Experience

 As the end of the school year is quickly approaching, the time has come to wrap up my blog project. For my final post, I wanted to change things up again and provide you guys with a more fun and personal blog. As many of you know from my past entries, I am a student-athlete at UNI and have one season remaining. Being a panther volleyball player has taught me a lot of lessons, many of which will stick with me forever.

12 Things I've learned as #12 for the UNI Panther Volleyball Team:
1. Sacrifices will be made
Whether it's having to stay in while your non-athlete friends go out on a Thursday because you have a workout the next morning, or if its missing an extra credit opportunity because you have to study before practice. Being a college student athlete has taught me that there will be a lot of things you will have to skip or miss out on, but the opportunities you do get make it all worth while.

2. Nothing compares to the soreness of off-season training
Before I came to college, I had a few instances every now and again where I thought I was "sore". After the first day of my freshman spring conditioning, I felt muscles I didn't even know I HAD sore. Things like walking up the stairs or even sneezing were a struggle. I found myself getting legitimately mad hearing girls in my class complain about how hard their 20 minute ab class was.

3. You will fail.
While many people are afraid of failure, you learn how to deal with it as an athlete. There will be games you lose, exercises you just can't perfect, times you just can't beat. Being an athlete has helped me learn from these failures, and accept them. Everyone will be faced with failure throughout their life and growing from these failures isn't an easy concept for most.

4. Teamwork really does make the dream work
As much as your family, friends, or coaches motivate you, you really can't do it without your teammates. Having your teammates there through the tough times, whether it be a hard workout or by your side in the game, helps you push yourself to new limits. You're around your teammates everyday and they will probably know more about you than you know yourself.

5. Waking up "at the crack of dawn" is normal
Waking up before 6:00 am three times a week was something that took awhile to adjust to. Over the years its definitely gotten easier and I've learned to make the most of it. Having one of our workouts done before most of my classmates are even up for the day is definitely a rewarding feeling when I get to class.

6. A bus seat will become your biggest enemy (especially if you're tall)
During season, it almost feels as if a charter bus is your second home. While we do get to fly to some games, most of our conference matches are within driving distance. Even after all these years of traveling in buses, I still haven't figured out how to sleep comfortably in those seats.

7. Group projects during season will never be a good mix
Going from lifting, to class, to lunch, to practice, to showering, to dinner, you usually have about a 3 hour block each day for any sort of plans with classmates. And that's if you're even in town that day. The day you pick groups in a class at the beginning of the semester, you have one goal in mind: look for the most a) flexible or b) the person that won't get mad if you have to contribute through email.

8. What happens in the locker room, stays in the locker room..
Pretty self explanatory. Some of the most random and funny things I've ever had conversations about have happened behind closed doors in our locker room. Not to mention, our sound system sets the stage for a pretty good dancing environment.

9. Days will get long but the months will fly by
The NCAA limits in-season sports to 4 hours of practice a day, with a maximum of 20 hours a week. You are guaranteed one day off during the week but these days are usually devoted to traveling or homework. Getting up early and studying late at night makes some days seem long, but before you know it months have passed.

10. The years will also fly
I can honestly say these past four years have been the fastest four years of my life. I thankfully get one more season because I red shirt as a freshman but I still can't wrap my mind around being the oldest on the team yet.

11. Family becomes even more important than before
One of the best feelings is being down on the court in the middle of a match, hearing the crowd cheering, and being able to look up in the stands and see your family cheering you on

12. The memories will last forever
I will always remember putting on my #12 panther jersey for the first time, how it felt running out of the tunnel for the first time hearing the crowd cheering, and how it felt getting in my first game, to name a few. Being a college athlete can be a lot of hard work and stress, but the opportunities and memories that come along with it really make it all worth it in the end.

Social Media Recruiting

You always hear people say, "You better be careful what you put on social media! You don't want your future employer to use anything against you!". But what about college recruiters? Social media has become such a common and popular thing today that even college recruiters turn to it as a main source of recruiting. While college recruiting used to be only between mail, phone calls, or face-to-face, social media introduces a whole new approach.

Why Social Media Recruiting went viral:

• Until just recently, college coaches and recruiters weren't allowed to text high school athletes. The only rule about social media are that all messages must be private. While they can't publicly tweet a prospect, a recruiter can direct message anyone they want, as much as they want.
• There are rules out there that restrict how fancy a college dresses up their mailed letters and envelopes so that colleges with less money had a fairer chance at attracting athletes. On social media, schools can send fancy and colorful logos, pictures, and videos at little to no cost.
• A majority of high school students have some sort of social media account, as well as most University sports programs, making it easier to contact between the two. 

Why its good for the athlete:

• High school athletes are always checking up on their Twitter feeds and Facebook timelines. Seeing current athletes at the schools their looking at posting on social media will help them get a better idea of their potential future teammates
• Today it is much easier for athletes to attract recruiters. Something extremely popular today is YouTube highlight videos that athletes provide for college recruiters. 
• Athletes are able to search for posts or tweet about other people opinions on a school or sports team
• Many athletes turn to social media today to announce their commitment to a school and keep their fans updated. 

Why its good for the recruiter:

• While colleges are limited to a number of how many times they can bring an athlete to campus, they can use social media to constantly post about their program and attract athletes to their team
• Recruiters are using Twitter more and more to see what kind of person they are recruiting. This can be helpful when planning what activities they will entertain their recruits that come for a visit. 
• Recruiters can use Twitter to see their competition. Many athletes usual follow teams that their interested in and this is visible for other followers to see.
• Like an athlete, a recruiter can search on Twitter or Facebook to see what other people are saying about an athlete, or where that athlete will be competing next.

 In the end, social media is great for entertainment and social uses, but has also become a great way of communication for things like businesses and athletic recruiters!

And Then There Were Two

Last night, the final two teams of the 2015 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament were determined.  The Duke University Blue Devils and the University of Wisconsin Badgers are currently the only two college basketball teams still considered "in season". One of the many big upsets of the tournament happened last night as (then) undefeated Kentucky went down to the Badgers with a spot in the championship at risk. The University of Kentucky is currently 2nd in all time national championships with 8 titles, just behind UCLA who has a total of 11 national titles. The championship game will take place Monday night, and the Badgers or Blue Devils will officially become this year's National Champions.

The NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship was created during 1939 and currently features 68 teams throughout the tournament. The teams include the champions from each of the 32 conferences, and the remaining 36 teams are chosen by a selection committee. Since 1969, the tournament games have been televised nationwide, and since then, its popularity has rapidly increased.

For this blog, I wanted to take this exciting time in the sports world to demonstrate some of the cool and interesting features today's web provides. After a bit of research, I've compiled a few of the most interesting analytics. Here's how the remaining two teams measure up against each other off the court.



To check out what each team is currently tweeting, check out these ques of their timelines:
Duke Basketball's Twitter:
Twitter Name: @dukeblueplanet
Tweeting Since: December 2008
Tweets: 17,453
Following: 935
Followers: 145,705
Tweets by @dukeblueplanet




Wisconsin Basketball's Twitter:
Twitter Name: @BadgerMBB
Tweeting Since: March 2009
Tweets: 21,070
Following: 370
Followers: 116,227

Tweets by @BadgerMBB

Below is a graph charting how the Blue Devils (blue) measure up against the Badgers (red) in Google searches in 2015, using a tool on Google Trends that can illustrate any Google searches you want:

Duke Men's Basketball Page provides the following information to show how many likes they get each week. As you can see, there was a definite spike of interest on 4/4/15, the date of their Final Four Victory

Wisconsin Men's Basketball Page shows similar trends:

The above graphs listed are just a few of the different ways we can measure online activity about any topic we might be interested in. These trends show just how much people turn to social media to express their interest and support for their favorite teams. While we all excitingly anticipate Monday night's game, check out this link for game's preview and predictions!: 

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/eye-on-college-basketball/25136412/2015-final-four-aftermath-early-wisconsin-duke-title-game-preview 

Multi-Sport Pro Athletes

As March Madness has been taking over the web and TV, its been a majority of what I've been hearing about and watching lately. Something that really caught my attention and encouraged me to dig deeper recently was hearing about the Notre Dame basketball star who didn't only shine on the basketball court. Pat Connaughton attends Notre Dame as a basketball AND baseball student-athlete. He was even drafted for the MLB but returned to finish his last basketball season for the Fighting Irish. I then remembered back to the Volleyball National Tournament last fall. A few volleyball players on some of the final teams also played on their college's basketball teams.

There has constantly been a controversy about whether high school athletes should participate in multiple sports or take their talents and focus on just one. But which one is right? Personally, I consistently played 3 sports throughout my high school career, so I lean more towards the multi-sport side. Some colleges, though, prefer the athletes that devoted all of their time to one sport. Kentucky, for example only has one player on the roster that participated in a sport (football) other than basketball as a high school athlete.

Thinking about these things made me wonder if there were any professional athletes out there that either were multi-sport collegiate athletes, or if they played a completely different sport in college than they do professionally. Here's some of the things I found!

 

Michael Jordan participated in basketball, baseball, and track in high school. He later went on to become the most well-known NBA player, and even played a season in the MLB.

Tom Brady declined his offer in the MLB draft before he went on to play college football, and later a star in the NFL, where he currently plays for the Patriots

Johnny Manziel, a current NFL player, was also drafted to the MLB in 2014

Jackie Robinson was UCLA's first 4 sport letter-men where he excelled in baseball, basketball, football, and track

Justin Marneau played as a goaltender in the NHL before emerging as a catcher for the Minnesota Twins (MLB)

Marion Jones is most known for her multiple track medals in the Olympic games, but she was also a basketball leader for the UNC Tar Heels an even went on to also play in the WNBA





Comment below if you have any input on multi-sport vs. single sport athletes!

Pro Athletes Promote Charities

Being a celebrity has many perks, including the money, fame, and overall opportunities. Because celebrities are so popular and have large fan bases, it is easy for them to get word out quickly to large amounts of people. This celebrity approach has been beneficial for advertising and promotions. But some celebrities and famous athletes aren't all about the attention, and use their fame to help others. Charity work and 'giving back' has become very important in today's society and many people get involved in this practice.

One of the most popular things going around the internet this past summer (2014) was the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. The challenge included recording a video of you pouring a bucket of ice water over your head and nominated a few of your friends to do the same, upload the video to social media, and nominating new friends, all within 24 hours. If the challenge wasn't complete, they were to donate $10 to the ALS association. This challenge quickly went viral across the nation, as people tagged more and more people.  My university volleyball team was nominated by one of our opponents, Missouri State, to complete the challenge. Check it out by clicking this link:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=931374916889454

Many other famous athletes got involved with the hype:


The best thing about today is that its easy to get news and information out quickly. Social media has been these athlete's main source of communication to make people aware of these organizations. Promoting their foundations and providing links on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter creates quick access and informs their fans and society about these types of foundations and events.




Some of the most commonly known foundations include United Way, American Cancer Society, and American Red Cross. The following are some of the most successful and well-known athletes who are considered top contributes to charities and foundations of their own:





Tiger Woods created a charity to help young adults pursue their dreams through scholarships, grants, and a Tiger Woods Learning Center for students to learn at.

http://www.tigerwoodsfoundation.org/ 







Serena Williams established the Serena Williams Foundation to provide assistants to youth whose family's have been crime victims and created programs for counseling these children.
 http://www.theserenawilliamsfoundation.org/aboutus.htm

David Beckham has contributed to many charities include being an Ambassador of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children  http://www.nspcc.org.uk/

LeBron James established the LeBron James Family Foundation which was created to support children by promoting healthy lifestyles and education.
http://lebronjamesfamilyfoundation.org/

Twitter Fuss: Bloomsburg University Baseball vs. Mo'ne Davis

Another popular Twitter controversy has risen this past week. According to Sports Illustrated, a student-athlete at Bloomsburg University has been kicked off the baseball team after posting an insensitive tweet. Joey Casselberry, a sophomore baseball player posted the following tweet about Mo'ne Davis, a girl that has recently been publicized with success in the Little League World Series:

In the summer of 2014, 12 year old Mo'ne Davis became the first girl to pitch a shut out in the Little League World Series. Recently, the Disney Channel network that they will be producing "Throw Like Mo", an original movie about Davis' life as a baseball teen. Soon after the announcement of this movie, Joey Casselberry published his tweet that went viral quickly. The University took action immediately  and they also turned to Twitter to apologize to the public.

Bloomsburg Univ is deeply saddened by what was written about #MoneDavis by one of our student-athletes. His words do not represent us.
— BU Huskies (@GoBUHuskies) March 21, 2015

We take matter very seriously; addressed the issue with the student-athlete (who has been dismissed from team), coach, and the team.
— BU Huskies (@GoBUHuskies) March 21, 2015

Despite being a star athlete on the baseball field, Mo'ne Davis hopes to play college and professional basketball. With these goals, she felt bad that Casselberry was revoked from the team. Davis and her coach actually emailed the University asking that Casselberry could be re-admitted on the team. She wrote,

"He made one dumb mistake. I'm sure he would go back and change it if he could. We all make mistakes and deserve to be forgiven. I hope you will give him a second chance and allow him to play."

The University has since state that they respect Davis's concern, but will support their previous decision and keep Joey Casselberry off the team.

In his public apology, Casselberry includes that his tweet is "an example that one stupid tweet can ruin someone's life.."

Social Media During March Madness

Who do we play? What's their record? Where are they from? What are they ranked? Who's their best player? 

These are all common questions during March Madness that can be answered literally at the tip of your finger. With the NCAA Tournament getting underway this weekend, social media conversations have sky rocketed. No longer do you have to tune into the television in hopes of catching details about your favorite team or players. People across the nation turn to their phone to search Google, Twitter, Facebook and many other sites to stay updated on what's happening in the college basketball world. Social media is all about current updates and can provide viewers with scores, stats, and predictions. According to the NCAA, 7.7 million social media comments were made about the tournament already. 88% of people use their cell phones to access March Madness information. .

This past week I traveled from Iowa to Florida. Throughout my trip, college basketball was a conversation I commonly overheard. I saw multiple people checking their phones and updating brackets. I even checked Twitter using a "Tweets in the Area" feature and saw that hundreds of people were constantly tweeting about the current games. Laying out on the beach, I was able to check Twitter to see what people were saying about games and who won through accounts like @SportsCenter and @NCAA. 

One of the coolest things about social media during March madness is connecting with the players. Going to a university that is currently in the dance, I've gotten to see first hand the interactions taking place. Fans wishing players luck and congratulating them on wins. Athletes tweeting back thanking their supporters and posting other words of determination and assurance to their fans that they're ready to play. All of which people wouldn't be able to see before social media.

Google Trends is an online feature to see what people are searching about. On the first day of March Madness, "NCAA Brackets" and "March Madness" we're #2 and #3 in the list of most searched on Google for the day with over 1 million searches each. 

Finally, Facebook generated a completed bracket solely based on social media mentions of teams and released it days before the tournament: