Student-Athlete to Professional Athlete: Confronting the Brutal Facts

Abstract

When asked what they want to be when they grow up, children answer in a variety of ways. However, one promiant response focuses on becoming a superstar athlete. As age and competitive factors regularly remove this option from consideration for a majority of students, there are those for whom the dream maintains its promise into early adulthood. This study proposes to showcase the aspirational and institutional complexities that student-athletes experience as they attempt to rise from student-athlete to all-star professional while navigating the collegiate waters along the way. It is this unique paradox particularly crafted in the United States that is considered worthy of further exploration, discussion, and explanation in an attempt to offer educators a data-driven platform as they support student-athletes’ in their journeys toward the pinnacle degree while maintaining the passion to dream the impossible dream.