June 9, 2022
LOCAL
SPORTS
Fort Lupton Press 9
Off to college, adulthood and college sports ‘Having your own bedtime’ part of adjustment for former high-school athletes BY BY STEVE SMITH SSMITH@COLORADOCOMMUITYNEWSPAPERS.COM
It’s a rite of passage. High-school students swap the comforts of home, home-cooked meals and laundry services in exchange for the first taste of responsibility, finding their own meals and ways to keep their clothes clean. Welcome to college. While it’s quite the switch for the majority of college freshmen, those who choose to be athletes have to budget in practice time, film sessions, game days/nights and travel into their new-found routines. We talked with almost a dozen former high-school athletes about their first year in college. In the first of a three-part series, they discuss the basic adjustment to college and how well they handled it. Adjustment highlights Vershon Brooks played football at Brighton High School. He’s doing the same at Luther College in somewhere. “The adjustment from high-school to college sports was definitely noticeable right away,” he said. “The small details in every little think you do matter. Little details in how you train, how you practice all adds up, and it will show on the field. Honestly, there was nothing really tougher. Only thing I can say that got tougher was just the speed of the game.” Chase Prestwich, who played baseball at both Brighton and Frederick high schools, said there was lots of adjusting. “Everyone is stronger, faster and bigger in college sports. It is something you have to get used to,” said the Northwestern State freshman. “Baseball in college requires a lot more time. The days are longer - practices, team meetings, going for treatments, looking at videos, etc. I’d say adjusting to the strength of everyone has been the hardest part.” Former Frederick basketball player Izayah Elize agreed with the strength piece. “Only 7% of athletes play at the next level, so obviously you have to be elite to play,” he said. His former classmate, Ryan Chacon, winner of two state track-and-field titles as a senior last spring, said there was lots to factor into his adjustments. He’s running cross country at Butler Community College in El Dorado, Kansas. “For me, a key one was time management,” Chacon said. “It’s a big key in college and determines your character to the coach.” Adams City alum and multi-sport athlete Gerardo Caldera chose Waldorf College and its football team. “When I first got here, things ran faster than what they did in high school,” he said. “Everything here is
at a faster pace, and you either keep up with it or you get left behind.” Former Stargate School student and Legacy High School swimmer Emma Kulbida took her talent to Carnegie Mellen, an NCAA Division III school in Pittsburgh. “The good thing about choosing to compete at a D3 level was the lower commitment to athletics. However, even at a D3 level the commitment level is very high,” she said. “We practice eight times a week, including lifts. So the practice time commitment is similar to what it was in high school.” The actual meets (each weekend, she said) take up “lots of time.” “The difficulty of training depends on how much effort you are willing to put into practices, so that stayed the same for me going from high school to college,” she said. “However, the time commitment increased, and it has been really difficult to figure out how to balance school and swimming.” Her former classmate at Stargate, Madison Roecker, is on the cheer team at Nebraska-Wesleyan. “The adjustment from high school to college sports was slightly difficult at first,” she said. “I had to learn how to manage my time better to account for longer practices alongside a more rigorous academic schedule.” Another Stargate alum, Erica Derby, played soccer for Northeast Community College in Norfolk, Nebraska. She said she didn’t have to make much of an adjustment. “For the soccer side, everything stayed almost the same. Except we practice in the morning before school, not after school like in high school,” she said. “There was a bit of an adjustment for my classes, though. In high school I was used to having every class every day and homework for that class every night.” That changed this year. “I have classes two or three times a week, which makes the homework due in two days, not one,” Derby said. “It took me about a week or so to get used to that. Other than that, everything was a smooth transition for me. I have a lot more free time that I did in high school. But soccer fills some of that, and the rest I use to study.” Former Riverdale Ridge baseball player Dakota Pruitt had a built-in advantage for his first year at Otero Junior College. “The switch from high-school to college athletics was pretty easy,” he said. “I had a lot of help from older friends and my brothers. They gave me advice and ways to make it through. So without them, I would be a lost puppy.” Brighton High School alum Eli Bowman played football at the South Dakota School of Mines. “At first, the adjustment from high school to college football is pretty big,” he said. “I was definitely humbled being surrounded by guys that are bigger, faster and stronger. The overall mindset was a big change too. In high school, not everyone was as committed as me. But in college, SEE SPORTS, P10
Frederick’s Izayah Elize faces off against two players from Mountain View March 2021 FILE PHOTO photo.
Frederick High School runner Ryan Chacon comes out just ahead of Ponderosa and FILE PHOTO Glennwood Springs runners in the 2019 the state 4A track meet.
