Being a student-athlete at Cortland is a very special privilege to have. It gives you responsibility inside and outside the classroom. Being a student athlete also helps you make tons of friends. Here at SUNY Cortland I play football, being a football player is amazing but it has its struggles you love to win games but when you play in the hard and gritty atmosphere of football it can be tough. But we like to call it, “playing in the trenches”.
Monday’s, we have off from football, as its the first day of the school week. Mondays even though we have off many players go into see the coaches to watch film and talk about the practices or games to try and learn more and grow their game. The only thing that is mandatory on Monday is for players who are in the 2-deep to grab scouting reports of the team we are about to play. The 2-deep means players who are starters and second string.
Tuesdays through Thursdays are the same every week, on these days we have our classes first but then we have a special team meeting at 3 followed by a position group meeting. Special teams are kickoffs, punts, punt return, field goals etc. Our position group is when you meet with the people who play your position and the coach that coaches it. When those two meetings are over its around 4 which means we get ready to practice and go out at 4:15, we practice till 6:30 on these days. These 3 days are mainly the same every week but on Wednesday we wear our full pads meanwhile on Tuesday and Thursday we wear only our uppers.
Fridays are our walkthrough day, the day before a game everyone is game ready. On Fridays before we practice we have to grab our uniform that we are wearing the following day. Then at 3 we have a specs meeting which is usually only 15 minutes, then we have practice from 4-5 wearing just our jerseys and helmets we do this to run through our plays so we are fresh for the game and not get anyone injured.
After the long week of build up and preparation Saturday has finally come and that can only mean one thing: Game-day. Game-day consists of waking up at 8 or 9 am depending on if the game starts at 12 or 1 because we always eat breakfast 4 hours before game. After breakfast we go home fast and then we are back at the field by 10:30 getting ready. We have position meetings and specs meeting on field at 11:10 and 11:20 then we go back in locker room until 12. As game time approaches the team is released in 3 groups all 10 minutes apart. We warm up and then once again we proceed to the locker room to listen to coach give his final thoughts on the game.
Sundays are check in days at 12 with the trainer for anyone who played a snap in the game just to check in and see how they are doing. For the rest of Sunday we have lift, and some team meetings in the afternoon. Being a football player at SUNY Cortland is a privilege but it involves a lot of work. In order to be a successful student athlete here you must be dedicated inside the classroom and on the playing field.