By Thomas Corhern
Cookeville Herald-Citizen
With all of the attention that is brought onto college athletics,
it sometimes becomes hard to notice all the work that goes on
behind the scenes of the typical student-athlete.
It's more than just the games and practices, but classes and
studying, as well as giving back to the community as they shape
themselves for their lives outside of school as adults.
That's the basis of Tennessee Tech's Man and Woman of the Year
awards. This week, the university's athletics department awards its
Woman of the Year, with the men's winner to be announced next
Sunday.
For TTU volleyball player Teresa Craig, academics was a major
factor. Putting together a perfect 4.0 grade-point-average is hard
enough for a normal student to achieve, let along a student-athlete
whose time is also divided with athletics. But Craig found a way to
have a perfect balance of athletics and academics, earning her this
year's Woman of the Year award.
"When you go to college and play sports," Craig said, "you've got
to understand what a student-athlete really means. We had some
success on the court in my junior year by winning the (Ohio Valley
Conference) tournament, but, ultimately, it's academics that are
going to get you somewhere in life after graduation."
And a perfect 4.0 GPA is certainly not an easy feat to accomplish
for a student-athlete.