*The following is a work of satire*
“A sport isn’t a sport without competition, and DIII athletes are dealt the toughest hand,” said Dick Brognan, a fifth-year senior and captain of Capital’s rugby team.
In so many words, he said it is time to wake the campus up to the truth about division III sports.
“It’s a lot more intense than most people think,” said Brognan. “It’s a battlefield, and you always have to stay on your A-game if you want to compete with the best of them.”
Though the upper echelon of DIII athletes statistically grace the lower level performances of DI athletes, Brognan believes that his efforts are still legitimate.
“Just because we aren’t in the top division doesn’t mean we’re less talented or less entitled to praise. You never devalue the need to focus on the prize. A win is a win as far as I’m concerned.”
Though Capital’s rugby team has only one championship win, the team is as hyped and driven as ever.
“Our pool of competition is, by nature, the smallest and least talked about, but that doesn’t mean our athletes should be underestimated,” Brognan said. “We’re prepared to do whatever it takes to turn this DIII team into a dynasty.”
Bringing the best out of any team is hard work; a substantial deal of time and effort is required to shape an athlete into a winning specimen.
In addition to a sport’s commitment, students feel the demands of academia. Focusing on schoolwork is a critical part of getting the most out of a degree.
“It’s all about time management,” said Brognan. “I always skip my gen eds to get to the gym early. Love of sport trumps love of grades.”
Brognan talked about the lasting affect his successes as a DIII team captain will yield.
“I’ll be able to tell my kids all about this era of my life and maybe inspire them to follow the same path. Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to get involved with their sports and really bring some of the intensity of my passion for competition to his scrimmages,” said Brognan. “I certainly won’t tell my kiddos that my fastest 40m sprint at trials was an entire second and a half slower than the Syracuse team average because it’s not about that, you know? It was about the camaraderie.”
Brognan continued discussing the adversities DIII athletes face. He and many others maintain that the odds are against the athlete even before they are accepted into a university.
Common knowledge and scholarship distribution laws tell us that no money can be made through recruitment to Division III schools. In fact, Brognan says he was even discouraged to play in college for reasons other than lack of monetary promise.
“As DIII athletes, we were always told that we were ‘objectively average’ or to ‘not bother trying to pursue sports after high school.’ But that didn’t stop us. No, we still eat, sleep, and breathe our sport despite all odds,” said Brognan.
