Imagine you’re a high school senior athlete.
It’s almost over, isn’t it?
In little more than two weeks, sooner for a lot of you in Colorado spring sports, there will be no more games to play, no more matches, no more meets, no more individual events.
Consider it all but official — bid farewell to being a kid and prepare yourself for adulthood.
It’s here.
And, for all practical purposes, wave goodbye to organized sports, especially those assorted with education, at least for most of you.
Go ahead and whine about it. Nothing will change it. Most of us 18 and older have been there, and now it’s your turn.
And, no, we didn’t like it, either.
It’s a crossroads that seemed so far away just a few months ago but will have come and gone, and been dismissed like yesterday’s school- lunch menu.
For those fortunate enough to be heading to NCAA Division I athletics, you’ll have to pass on most of your summer and head to college early for a series of workouts, summer classes and getting to know your new team and surroundings.
Be advised: College sports remain fun, but you have been assigned two jobs. One will involve making the adjustment to the next level’s academics, where the teachers are now called professors and aren’t anywhere near as compassionate and understanding as Mrs. Crabapple in third-period English. No, as long as they get paid, profs generally do whatever they want, as in lecturing for three hours and putting red markings on your term papers as if it’s Valentine’s Day.
The other will involve your sport. Be prepared for what will seem like light years of practice, time-consuming road trips and individual workouts that are required to justify your scholarship.
That’s the way it will be if you’re headed to the University of Texas or Nowhere Community College.
Something like 98 percent of you will be relegated to college intra- murals or some city or town’s recreational leagues. Embrace them because they may be all you have left.
Trust me, it won’t be the same as when you were a high school athlete. Carefree? Hardly. Innocent? Not a chance.
Some of you — gasp! — won’t play at all.
So what will you miss the most?
Game day? Meets at a certain venue? Walk-through practices? Making your varsity debut? Being issued your first school uniform? All of the promise in preseason sign- up? The first time the coach said you did a great job? Seeing your name (and spelled correctly) in the newspaper? Being named all-state or winning a championship? Sneaking a peek toward the stands and seeing your parents and grand- parents?
Here’s one that should be embedded in your brain: The moment you knew you attained the athletic respect of your peers.
How about all of those times your mother had something hot to eat for you, whether it was after practice or late at night after a contest? And how clean she always got your uniform? Dad and his open- wallet policy? Packing a gym bag? Leaving class early for an event out of town?
And how could you forget the smell of a locker room? Getting your ankles taped? Gaining friends on your team as well as from other schools? Being told “good game” by other parents? Or having a recruiter walk up and say, “Hi, I’m so-and- so from Big State” and expressing interest in you coming to play for them?
Not to rub it in, but it’s just about complete.
You didn’t realize the term “has- been” was relevant to teenagers, did you?
However, don’t fret that this segment of your life is completed; many others are waiting.
How you handle them is next.
You’ll always have your glory days to remember when running into former teammates or opponents. That part never goes away; it only gets better.
Allow me to be the first to welcome you to the club.
Neil H. Devlin: 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com
