Morgan Boyd
Reporter
For every person, there are only 24 hours in a day. That’s the amount of time for sleeping, working, eating and, if you are a college athlete, practicing.
If you are a dual athlete, dividing up those 24 hours gets a lot harder.
There are a number of students at The W who are competing in more than one sport. For both the athletes and their coaches, time management is one of the challenges they face each day.
John McGee plays both soccer and baseball at The W. He is a junior this semester who is also double majoring in History and Political Science. McGee has been playing baseball and soccer since he was a child, and the sports have always been a key part in his life. He’s originally from Illinois, so moving here for college was a major step in his life.
“I had never really heard of The W until a couple of months before moving here, and the original soccer coach Tim Gould had been from my area in Illinois. I found out about The W through him because he had accepted a coaching job around here.”
McGee said he had offers from other schools, but he chose The W for the affordability and love for professors in his department. McGee said his favorite thing about playing both soccer and baseball at The W is his teammates.
“I’ve played on teams where it really wasn’t quite right, the guys don’t quite get along, the team chemistry is not quite there, normally they don’t do as good. So really a lot of the guys now, going into junior year have been around each other for a long time and have formed a close bond.”
He said his favorite memories revolve around post-season play.
“For both sports my favorite memory has been going to the national championship tournaments. It’s kind of a big deal because this was something we worked hard for throughout the season. We went this year, my junior year, and this was something we had been working for since my freshman year so we really got to see the fruits of our labor.”
Drew Johnson, the head women’s basketball coach, has been working for The W for two years. He currently has three dual sports players on his team — Katie Beth Williams, Rachael McGrew and Hannah Hurdle, all of whom who play both softball and basketball. Johnson said he believes being a dual sports athlete takes a special person.
“It takes a special kind of person to be able to accommodate those responsibilities because I have my set of demands and Coach Newman has his set of demands, and they have to meet both of them, otherwise they can’t play. But I think they are very well-rounded individuals. I think they were already well rounded when they came here.”
Johnson said that, in addition to balancing the physical demands of two sports — as well as academic work — dual athletes must balance their practice hours for each sport.
“At our level we are only able to practice four hours a day. Between my practices which run from about an hour and a half to two hours, and coach Newman, who runs anywhere from three to four hours, it’s all about balance and keeping up with hours,” Johnson said.
Chelsey Walker is another dual athlete at The W. Walker is a senior exercise science major who plays soccer and runs track. She has been participating in sports since she was in elementary school.
“In third grade my sister and I got signed up for something called Spar. We would run to compete in competitions.”
Walker said that when she was looking for a college, The W wasn’t really on her list.
“I’ve been a lot of places, but Mississippi was not one of the places I had ever been, so when I finished at junior college, I went online and looked up colleges, and Mississippi University for Women came up. I didn’t know how I would feel about going to an all-girls school, so I started doing some research and found that they were trying to bring back athletics. This was my last stop while touring colleges, and I just fell in love. I met Coach Gray [Massey], and he treated me like more than another number or another player to him.”
Walker says her favorite thing about the sports she plays is the connection she has with her teammates. She said they work hard, but also can have a bit of fun at times. One of them forms her favorite memory of team sports at The W so far.
“The first week or so of practice we played a game, and you have to go through and kick, chest, or head a ball. On the last run through they tossed up an egg disguised as a ping pong ball and so when they went to head the ping pong ball and the egg landed on them.”