University communications intern Megan Bernier '07, of Alpharetta, Ga., is captain of the women’s swim team and a past student delegate to the Alumni Council. St. Lawrence offers 32 varsity teams. Men’s and women’s hockey are in NCAA Division I; riding is a non-NCAA sport; the NCAA does not assign ski teams to divisions; the remainder are in Division II of the NCAA. Check out the variety of varsity teams. Intramural Sports Basketball, broomball, flag football, ice hockey, soccer, softball, ultimate Frisbee, volleyball, wiffle ball, others as determined by student interest and initiative. Club sports Alpine ski, cycling, ice hockey, juggling, karate, outing, rowing, ruckus, rugby, Nordic ski, running & fitness, shuttling, snowboard, wrestling, others as determined by student interest and initiative.

So You Say You Want a Challenge?
Being a student-athlete isn’t easy, but at St. Lawrence you’ll have lots of support.

By Megan Bernier ’07

Let’s say it right up front: being a student-athlete in college is one of the most challenging things anyone can face.  Not only do you have to take the same number of classes and complete the same number of hours of homework each day, but you also have to fit a two- or three-hour practice in there.  No matter how late this keeps you up at night, you have to wake up and do the same thing the next day.  The course work never decreases in college, and the practices only get harder.

But don’t despair; try to find a college where you’ll have assistance handling all this. At St. Lawrence, every person is part of your support system and is there to help you persevere and accomplish all the goals you set out at the beginning.  Your coaches, teammates, classmates and professors all want to see you become the best student and athlete you possibly can, and are willing to do what it takes to get you there.

Being on a team at St. Lawrence instantly gives you a family.  You’ll have lifelong friends from the moment you step on campus.  The upper-class members of the team often seek out and look after the first-year students and help them make the transition to college life.  From here, friendships begin and the team’s potential grows exponentially.

At St. Lawrence, teammates know they aren’t just friends, but that they are in a position to help shape each others’ lives.  Each team member wants to reach the same common goal and endures the same grueling workouts, and pushes the others to the limit in order to reach that goal.  It is through working as a unit, as a team, that St. Lawrence athletes learn the true meaning of teamwork, compromise and camaraderie, because then they can see that the rewards for working together are endless.  You can often find entire teams studying together in the library.  They choose to do this for themselves because they have learned that working together off the field reaps the same benefits as it does on the field.

Coaches are, above all, mentors, willing to help you in any way they can, whether it has to do with athletics or not.  Coaches are not only concerned about your performance on the field; they are concerned with how the rest of your life is going.  Walk by any coach’s office during the afternoon and you are likely to find a few athletes talking with the coach about something other than sports!  After graduation, many St. Lawrence athletes keep in touch with their coaches for years.  Alumni athletes will tell you that their coaches played an integral part in their success at St. Lawrence, and later in life.

Don’t be surprised if you see your psychology professor sitting in the front row watching you compete.  The coaches, professors and administrators take an interest in each student’s life, both in and outside the classroom.  Even the president comes to home games! They want to see students succeed in every way imaginable.  The professors bring just as much excitement to the stands as do the other spectators!

In order to be a true Saint, you must be willing to test and exceed the limits you and others have placed on you. In this way you can become who you’ve always dreamed of being.  The people at St. Lawrence not only help, but encourage you to do that.  You will arrive with your own personal goals, and by the end of your four years, you will have surpassed each of them with the help of your teammates, your coaches and others.  Are you ready to find the Saint in you?