Athletics in Greek Life
 

I was wondering if this as happened at any school before?

At University of Hawaii at Manoa some coaches from different sports have taken a stance upon there players joining any greek organization. We have has a couple of athletes attempt to pledge yet the coach would stop it.

I am not too sure either if any of our brothers are allowed to join any of these sports because they are already initiated with us. None of us have tried but I know one of my brothers wants to try out next year. I find this kind of funny because one of the coaches is an Alumni of our fraternity from a different chapter.

Even though Coach Wallace is a Kappa Sigma he probably won't change his stance. Has he even bothered to get involved now that you guys are on campus?

We had members of the track, cross-country, and sailing teams in my chapter before. The coaches had no problem with it, but then again their practice schedules and away time were more flexible than that of, say, volleyball, basketball, and softball.

I can understand why a coach would prohibit his/her players from becoming Greek, especially if the athlete is on scholarship. The athlete is committeed to school first, then athletics. Joining an extra-curricular could compromise that.

True.
I was not going to say the coaches name.
But yes everything you stated is true yet I dont see why the coaches can not work with us rather than downing us. I mean yes if the initial obligation due to things such as scholarships and everything is to the sports than I think we can make acceptions for it.

Many Coaches don't want their Jocks to be taken away from The Team Mentality. Concentrate on the team so to speak.

Funny our last President played football and was a Acadamien All American with a 4.0.

He learned more from being a member of a glo than playing football.

All many of these neanderthal coaches have to do is go to web sites and see how many key players were members of glos.:rolleyes:

Ummmm....are you talking about Clinton? Clinton was in a co-ed social fraternity and played intramural rugby at Oxford. Where did you get that he was an AllAmerican football player? He went to Georgetown and Oxford???


.........and I don't even know what this means.

My daughter competes at the intercollegiate level. Her sport's college team has 100% Greek membership for the sophomores through seniors. The freshmen have to wait for deferred recruitment so we'll see if the tradition continues. What's nice about many of the women's teams at her school is that the team members tend to pledge as individuals thus resulting in membership in all the groups. The boys at her school seem to have more of a mob mentality about the process as certain fraternities are known to be the baseball, the lacrosse, et al groups.

What school is this? I've never heard of that sort of anything anywhere. I have experience with college baseball.....and I don't see how it would be possible to even have the time think about joining a fraternity.

When I was at Texas, when chapters took athletes they pretty much excused them from most pledge activities. It is the trade-off of having the prestige of athletes in the fraternity.

Besides, someone who dedicates himself to something as demanding and rewarding as college athletics is the kind of guy you want in your chapter anyway. So why not make some compromises so he can do both?

One thing is for sure, anyone doing collegiate athletics is already getting a lot of the education pledgeship provides.

It's a D3 school. Obviously there aren't quite the demands on D3 athletes but they still are putting in 20 hrs per week between practices and competitions.

My brother played baseball at MIT, was a 4 year active member and officer of his fraternity, and graduated with a 4.0. Most of his fraternity brothers were baseball and rugby players. Again, just Division 3 but still extremely time-consuming.

My chapter has had a bunch of athletes go through. Currently, there is a basketball player and a baseball player in the chapter, and a recent grad played football. In my chapter's history, the school's first Black quarterback was a member as well as hall-of-famers throughout the years.

But NO ONE gets any special treatment. We respect obligations to athletics(or any important student group for that matter) but no responsibilities are shirked or compromised.

Maybe there is a lot of things you do not get.

This a Greek Site, not a President site.


Dont Make Fun of Brother Bill, at least there were good times and people had more than change in their pockets, DAH!

i'm an athlete and also in a sorority, granted its a DIII school, but i'm captain of my school's very successful crew team as well on the panhel council.

on my team we have always had girls in sororities, my co-captain is president of her sorority. and in my sorority we have other rowers, basketball, soccer, lacrosse and volleyball.

but greek life and sports are quite common for some sports here - rowing, women's basketball, volleyball, baseball, but others the coaches frown upon it - mens basketball and lacrosse.

:) Maybe it is because that when the Jock period is over there is another alternitive, being a Greek where one can learn many more things!:D

1. How to work with people.
2. How to manage people.
3. How to run official Offices.

Oh, you don't get brusied and beat up as easly too.!:D

I agree with this. I mean even if they have to wait till the next semester to pledge I think Athletes should be able to pledge.

Let me add a comment on this subject. My freshman daughter currently rows for the University of Alabama, an NCAA Division I program. We advised the Bama coach of her interest in joining a sorority and participating in varsity crew. She currently rows, is an active DZ, and a Committee member with the UA Student Government. Her grades are excellent. Below are the exact words of the Alabama crew coach:

Regarding your mention of the Greek system, Kristen needs to be aware
that membership in most sororities is not compatible with being a
varsity athlete. While some of our club athletes have been and are
sorority members, it is the exception and not the rule. These same
athletes will need to adapt to more defined practice times/schedules, if
they choose to be part of the varsity squad. Most sororities are not
flexible when it comes to their meetings and activities. As coach, I
expect our varsity rowers to defer to the requirements of the team and
academics, not to voluntary pursuits. Kristen must be very selective if
she is intent on both sorority and varsity participation. She will need
to be adept at time management, something not usually the forte of most
freshmen. This is advice from the voice of experience encouraging
caution.

Note to 'speedsters': Kristen rowed stroke in Alabama's highest-placing novice eight at last week's Head of the Hootch. The Alabama novice team has 44 members. Since the Coach's original e-mail in August '06, he decided to keep all freshman on the novice team.

Now let me further add that the University of Alabama Novice coach has been great in terms of dealing with Kristen's participation in both. The varsity coach was simply cautioning her as to priorities before she committed herself to both activities in August. I think it was very wise on his part. From what I gather, DZ and Bama Crew have been mutually supportive in actual practice.

I admire both organizations and their willingness to support the Greek athlete.

We wouldn't take an athlete so it's not a question.

Which sorority will not take an athlete, out of curiousity?

I think your question would be better taken on a chapter by chapter basis.

To say XYZ sorority will not take an athlete is a bit much.

My chapter not only had quite a few soccer girls (Club at our school was as serious as women's soccer at other schools) but also cheerleaders both for soccer and basketball. Their sporting events come before even chapter meetings and recruitment events because this is how they put themselves through school.

There's the prestige factor involved (look how many groups have XYZs!) as well as the fact that they're still involved sisters and are a great part of our chapter.

You make me want to kick small children.

Well that is great that your daughter is able to become a Greek Athlete. Yet it is a chapter by chapter as well as a school by school basis. Also a sport by sport basis as where each individual school, chapter, and activity differs its priorities

At my school, I know athletes were strongly discouraged from going Greek. Most of the sports were D1, and I believe the hockey coach outright forbid it. We had a couple of soccer players and some crew members over the years, but I think that was the extent of it.

It was my understanding that, at some schools, there are certain fraternities almost completely made up of athletes (football teams, etc.).

Actually the title of the thread Athletics in Greek Life is somewhat misleading. To me, that would be discussing the GLO teams that compete on an intermural level.

This thread should be called Athletes in Greek Life OR Greeks in Athletics.

___
I looked at some old issues of my GLO's magazine. Actives have been profiled in our magazine who are intercollegiate D1 athletes in a myriad of sports running the gamut from cross-country to equestrian competition.

The coaches at my alma mater didn't forbid or ban Greek membership for the intercollegiate athletes. However, the College of Fine Arts faculty made it very difficult for the dramats and other BFA candidates to pledge. This was not the case at the other colleges that are part of the university system.

The Kappa Sig magazine had an article a couple of years ago on the decline of collegiate athletes in the fraternity. There was a period when the fraternity had quite a few collegiate and professional athletes, and that has fallen off almost completely recently. It may have something to do with the discussion of this thread, or it may just be that Kappa Sig isn't the football/baseball/whatever fraternity on campuses.

The professors at my school never did anything as far as limiting Greek involvement, although there were some who looked down on it. On the other hand, it was a professor who helped revive the Greek system at my school in the mid 1980's.

Like EE-BO said, I think there used to be a lot of sorority and fraternity chapters that would let a member get away with blowing off a lot more things if they were an athlete - because of the prestige. Clarion was D1 in swimming/diving when I attended and the top diver joined a sorority. The only time I EVER saw her doing things at them was...Greek Week, during Greek Swim. But they got to say "Donna Smith is an ABC" at rush.

I think that nowadays, far fewer Greek groups put up with that kind of thing. As it should be, IMO. I've never believed in giving someone a "pass" because they're an athlete or student senate prez or a pageant winner. One of the girls we open bid decided not to pledge us because she was elected to Student Senate (she eventually became President) and knew she wouldn't have the proper amount of time to give us. I really, really respect her for that.

So...if you can handle both to your satisfaction and that of your team and GLO, fine. But don't try to half-ass it.

I think it depends on a lot of factors: the school, the chapter, the individual and the sport. I know I've said this in another thread, but the husband sucessfully managed athletics, fraternity and academics at his DIII engineering college. I asked him once and he said about 1/4-1/3 of the guys when he was in the house were involved with a sport, with other chapters on campus having about the same ratio.

At one point when I was an undergrad, we had half the tennis team in our chapter. They were excused from mandatory events when they were out of town competing and were given some leeway for practices, but otherwise they were expected to attend all other events just like other members. Many of those women also held an office while they were competing (I believe one was even President) and maintained excellent grades. That worked for them, but may not for someone else.

I think a coach is completely within his or her rights to discourage or even deny membership in a GLO for a collegiate athlete, especially if that person is attending on an athletic scholarship.