Do I Stay or Do I Go?

A player on the softball team informed me that there is only one returning player to the team.

After hearing this, I gave her a look that said "Are you kidding me?!?!" But no, this was the truth. And it's a sad truth at that.

This pretty much sums a lot of sports teams at LSC. Why can't we get athletes, like the ones on the softball team, to commit? I've been here three years, and all I've heard is about how this guy or that girl has "left" their respective team. Some people transfer, while others simply don't want to play anymore.

I think that's why a lot of our teams tend to struggle. We get talented players all the time, but most of them only stick around for a semester or two. That leaves our coaches in a frenzy, running around like chickens with their heads cut off in order to find more talented recruits.

Not only does this process get redundant, but it gets more and more difficult as we go along. If I were an amazing athlete, I would definitely be startled by how many of my kind leave after such little time. That might even influence my decision to come here.

So if athletes are really influenced in such a way, then the school is continuing to lose out on good, committed athletes. A lot of our coaches go for athletes with higher ceilings, but lower floors. In other words, these athletes could be great for the school, but they also run the risk of leaving after a semester.

Don't get me wrong, this is no easy fix. The school just can't magically recruit people that want to play sports at colleges like Duke, Alabama, or LSU. What it can do, however, is try to stop focusing on the quantity of athletes, and instead focus on the quality.

We need more athletes that are better students and citizens! Those well-rounded type of people will not only give you a better effort, but should also stay committed to whatever sports team they choose to be on. Maybe it's time to avoid the recruits that have character concerns.

We're getting more students this coming semester, so maybe things will change. I applaud the effort for right now, but it remains to be seen if LSC will have the right kind of student-athlete, the kind I will be proud to write about in the future.