National Collegiate Athletic Association
NCAA News Archive - 2001
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When Jenifer Martin, a cross country athlete at California State University, Fullerton, discovered she was pregnant, the first athletics administrator she consulted was her academic counselor, Mike Miller.
Millier had helped Martin through a long physical and emotional recovery from an accident that had shattered her body just two years earlier.
"I asked him how I should tell my coach," she said. Miller helped her examine her options and also set her up with a counselor to help her collect her thoughts.
When she broke the news to her coach, he told her about past athletes who had been in similar circumstances and managed to make it through. "It made me feel like it was possible to have a child and still be successful in my sport and in school," she said.
In those crucial first weeks, Martin found support when she needed it most. She was scared and panicked. And the encouragement offered to her helped assuage her anxiety.
Finding comfort from the place student-athletes spend so much of their time helps to widen their emotional support structure or provide one when the usual avenues aren't available. For many student-athlete parents, athletics department personnel have played pivotal roles in helping them "keep it together."
University of Wisconsin, Madison, track athlete Cathy Ross was in for a lonely road ahead. She said her father stopped talking to her after learning she was pregnant. She said her mother offered to pray for her, but wanted her "to learn how to be an adult." The father of her baby transferred to another school.
Emotionally, it has been a difficult experience for Ross. But she has been able to get by partly because of the support she has found from her academic advisor and her team.
She said athletics academic advisor Christine Butler "has gone above the job of being an advisor. Without having her to call, I don't know what I'd do. She's done so much, asking me how I am, calling to check up on me."
As for her coaches, she said, "they've been great" during her attempt to get back to competitive form. "They haven't pressured me at all," she said. Even better, she has been able to bring her daughter Trinity to practice when a babysitter hasn't been available.
Gestures such as those help put a young parent's mind at ease. They can be the difference between staying in school and on the team or dropping out, especially when family and friends aren't around.
Those who are fortunate enough to have the full support of their families can't imagine what they would have done without it.
"My family was there the whole way," University of Cincinnati basketball player Tammy Douglass said.
They still are.
While she is finishing up her degree, her daughter Khrisma is staying with her mother and grandmother back home in Indianapolis. Douglass said that knowing her daughter is in a loving environment helps her focus on school and athletics.
That same type of support is what helped former Mansfield University of Pennsylvania basketball player Heather Westbrook get back in school and achieve her academic and athletics goals. Knowing she could depend on family and friends to help her with daughter Morgan gave her peace of mind.
Considering the alternative -- leaving student-athletes to handle it all by themselves -- it's in the best interests of everyone involved to become involved. The alternative is much less desirable.
If she had been left alone to raise her daughter, Westbrook said, "I don't think I would have played. I probably wouldn't have gone to college."
-- Keri Potts
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