done. Bill Shumard, Fred Claire, Tony Miller, and John Lombardo are just a few of many who served as mentors for me throughout my time as a student-athlete. Their help, advice, and ability to seek out opportunities for me was invaluable in my success. Without them, I don’t know where I would be today.
Time management for me was most important as I aimed to graduate in three years. Due to an injury, I had to continue my rehab and practice while I was taking twenty-three credits in the fall semester, and working three different internships all at the same time. Without quality time management and efficiency, there would have been no way I could have done all of that. As a sophomore, I even interned at the Inland Empire 66ers (A-league ball for the Angels) while I was in season. This was extremely difficult with practice times, but was attainable through supreme time management and a flexible coach.
With everything that I had on a daily schedule, organization was a skill that I developed and improved upon very quickly. Organization skills helped me with my time management, and paid off in the classroom. I kept a very detailed schedule of every day of every week to help me stay on top of everything.
Motivation was never an issue for me because I was never the best. I was always motivated to get better every day in every aspect of my life. All my life, I was told I couldn’t do things or I wasn’t good enough, and that served as fuel for me to prove people wrong. I wasn’t the best athlete on the field, and I wasn’t the smartest in every class, but through motivation and dedication, I always worked the hardest of anyone.
Well-balancing my academics and baseball was the single most important thing that helped me succeed in both. I was able to balance my time and put 100 percent effort into both responsibilities.
Networking has been my most valuable tool as I have started my career post graduate school. My early objective from networking was to find out everything possible about what people did in their jobs to provide a perspective on whether I would potentially be interested in what they did in the future. From talking to hundreds of people, I was able to rule out certain industries or jobs in order to narrow my career focus.
Networking has opened doors for me that nothing else could have. Every internship or job I have had was because I knew someone and had developed a relationship with that person. The more people you know and can impress, the more you can help put yourself in a position to get lucky at the right time.
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Step 3: Be Very Strategic with Your Success Wheel
Many struggle with the difference between strategy and tactics. Tactics are individual acts and capabilities that, when used in a coherent long-term plan, become a strategy. Tactics are usually short-term with immediate results; strategies create long-term systemic success. Be both strategic and tactical with each aspect of your success wheel.
To provide you with relevant advice on strategies and tactics around a success wheel, we sought the input of a successful student-athlete and interviewed Alexis Pinson, a collegiate volleyball player at Arizona State University and Ohio University. She graduated with her masters in sports administration degree during her last year of playing at Ohio and now works for the San Francisco 49ers as a sales and service coordinator. Alexis provides some great insight on how to ride your success wheel and succeed as a student-athlete.
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ALEXIS PINSON (former volleyball student-athlete at ASU and Ohio University)
1. What were your top three priorities as a student-athlete?
My first priority as a student-athlete was school. That was drilled into me since I was a kid just starting to play sports and it always remained my main focus. My parents always preached to me that sports are great but your body will only hold up for so long. You could get injured at any time and lose your athleticism but you can never lose your education. In fact, it was my emphasis on education that allowed me to graduate early from ASU and enter the MSA program at OU.
My second priority was of course volleyball. Volleyball was (and still is) one of my passions in life. If I wasn’t in class or doing homework, I was either practicing, training, watching film, or doing something else related to volleyball. My roommates at ASU were some of my teammates as well, so they shared the same passion for the sport as me. They also never complained when I would fill our entire DVR with volleyball matches. It’s probably one of the many reasons we got along so well.
My third priority was making time for my family and friends. One of the reasons that I decided to attend an undergrad school so close to my hometown was to be make it easy to still see my family as often as I could. After each of my home matches at ASU, a big group of people including my family, friends, teammates, and their families would all go out to dinner—whether we won or lost. These are some of my most cherished memories because it always put the matches into perspective. I was extremely lucky because my parents were able to carry on the tradition when I played at OU as they never missed a home game in Athens either. I was happy to prioritize my family when they would travel across the country several times over the span of a few months just to support me.
2. Did you have any resources that you used that helped you with your academics?
The one resource that I used the most when it came to my academics was the tutoring program we had at ASU. Our academic coaches would set us up with a tutor if we needed some extra help in a certain class. We could even just ask for help in studying for an exam. This was a resource that I found to be very valuable because not only were the tutors very knowledgeable in their respective fields, but many times they were familiar with a specific professor and provided you with special tips and pointers for those classes.
3. How important was networking for you, and how did you take advantage of being a student-athlete?
Networking was a crucial tool for me to get to where I’m at today, and being a student-athlete was the main channel that I networked through. I found that the easiest people to network with were former student-athletes themselves. There’s a common understanding and respect between student-athletes that I discovered while networking. They know you can handle the challenges and stressors of that life and can translate that to being a successful employee. It’s why employers always comment that student-athletes are great hires, and many of those employer-employee relationships are forged by networking with other current and former student-athletes.
4. What was the most important part of your success wheel and why?
The part of the wheel that contributed the most to my success as a student-athlete was motivation. Something (besides my alarm) had to get me up for 6 a.m. workouts every day. That same thing had to encourage me to study my notes again and again when all I wanted to do was sleep. Without motivation to get my degree and to make it to the NCAA tournament each year, I would’ve failed. That motivation to be able to say “I did the best I could” is what kept me going and led to my achievements.
5. What relationships did you build as a student-athlete that were most important to your success as both a student and an athlete?
The relationship that was most important to me as an athlete was my strength coach. This is usually a relationship that is underrated or gets overlooked, but it can be so important. Your strength coach is the one that will actually push you to do things that you didn’t know you physically could do. Achieving those physical goals can do wonders for your mental state as an athlete. I was also fortunate enough to feel close enough to my strength coaches that I could come to them with other issues I was having outside of the gym and they’d always seem to find a way to channel those struggles into my workouts. Not only would I get a great
