Being a Division I Athlete in a Fraternity
 

Just wanted to hear everyone's opinions on if it is possible to compete at a high level as a student-athlete and be a fraternity pledge. I've been thinking about rushing in the fall for a while. I have a few friends that are involved in greek life and it seems like a great experience. In college I wanted to be more than just an athlete, something which almost all my teammates don't have in common. While I consider a good number of them my close friends, very few make any efforts to socialize outside the team. The several times I've went out to frat parties I've had mostly good experiences and there are two fraternities at my school that I could see myself as a good fit. At the same time I don't want to hurt my experience as an athlete or alienate my teammates, many of which hate fraternities. My question is, when pledging, do fraternities take into account that athlete competition/travel may mean that I can't attend/participate in initiation event? I understand and will want to partake in fraternity rites of passage when I can, but don't want to sacrifice my athletic performance towards later stages of the season.

You HAVE to get initiated at some point. They may be willing (depending on the size of your pledge class) to schedule it around your games or else to hold a special initiation for you. If you're confusing "initiation" with "pledging activities" - initiation is only one night.

As for whether a fraternity would give you a bid, it all depends. Some take athletes for the prestige and are willing to cut them some slack. Some won't and demand that they meet exactly the same requirements as other pledges. There's no way to know unless you try. If you mention that you'll be gone for this, that, and the other thing because of your team, and the fraternity member you're talking to gets a displeased look on his face, that group is probably not for you. You might (subtly) ask your friends if they know the different fraternities' stances on this subject.

Re the anti-Greek teammates: if they're your friends, they'll support you in whatever you want to do. If they don't, they're assholes and not really your friends at all. From what you say, they sound very cliquish and self-limiting, and that's the last thing anyone needs in college - unless you're all going to join the same pro team when you graduate (very unlikely).

Case-by-case and chapter-by-chapter basis.

I advise every aspirant (athlete or nonathlete) to never go into it telling the members what you can and cannot do/will and will not do. Your athlete status is no secret so the fraternity men will probably already know that about you. Let your rigorous schedule be something that they consider after they note your awesomeness. You are not the first or last college student with a relatively inflexible and rigorous schedule (at your school and across schools); and you are not the first or last athlete who "pledged" a fraternity or sorority (either at your school or across schools).

You are absolutely right. My teammates that I am actually close to and care about would not hold it against me. However, I know my more judgmental teammates would talk so much shit that my coach would find out which might causes problems (he has been known to get on our cases in the past about parties, especially if we're not performing well). I could honestly see some douchebags going up to our coach ratting me out. If I don't perform well for whatever reason they would love to blame it all on frats. Thats just the way some of them are, which makes me want to rush in the fall even more. I just don't want to end up in a situation that damages my relationship with my coach because of a bunch of shit-talkers. All I can really do is tell him I want to go Greek for the right reasons.

I don't do a high profile sport like football/basketball so I fly under the radar. That is some good advice, I will just go through the whole process without really mentioning my athlete status until there's a schedule conflict.

I think it also depends on the school that you go to. At some schools, it is more "acceptable"/common to be a varsity athlete and Greek. (It can also be a team by team basis.) At others, it is somewhat unusual. You also have to look at the crazy factor-is it going to make you crazy to try and balance your obligations and responsibilities to your team AND your fraternity, especially if you are at a school, based on my interpretation of your comments, where it is unusual for varsity athletes to be Greek? If you think you can handle it, then, like anything else in life, give it a shot.

Unless you have prospects of a professional career as an athlete, you will leave this behind when you graduate, but your fraternity experience can last your whole lifetime.

When you are 40, how many of your team members do you think you will have in your cell phone list? I have ten of my brothers on mine.

The coaches choose the team, you didn't, but you can choose your brothers.

*LIKE*

I'm not a professional swimmer, but I will continue to get joy out of it the rest of my life. One is not inherently superior to the other.

some chapters covet varsity athletes and cut them a great deal of slack with the demanding sports schedule they have. some coaches don't mind if a member of the team they coach joins a greek org., while others forbid it. hopefully you will find a chapter that is looking for the bragging rights of saying, "fratlete is one of our brothers" and your coach will not come down on you too hard. good luck!

Amen.

Some college athletes continue to actively participate in the sport after college. Some do not. That can be based on time, access to resources, or unicorns. This young man can invest in a GLO that can be (if he takes the lifetime commitment seriously) a resource regardless of whether this young man has decided to continue his athleticism (professionally or nonprofessionally) after college.

In contrast, many college athletes (across institutions) invest so much in the sport and the team that they don't do anything else.** If they aren't hanging with teammates or doing something directly related to the team and sport, they aren't doing anything. At many institutions, that impacts them academically and extracurricular-ly (new word?). Then they graduate and wonder what's next. I've tutored and taught many athletes across institutions and many of them have had no concept of nonathletic future prospects.

**College athletes aren't the only ones who tend not to balance (by choice or because of the rigorous schedule and expectations) but this is a college athlete thread.

I think what Laf means is not to let anti-Greek attitudes of his teammates derail him from pursuing fraternity membership. They sound like they're on the road outlined in DrPhil's second paragraph above.

:rolleyes:

Many people have the same "you will leave this behind" viewpoint of fraternity membership once they graduate. There are many 40 year olds who were in fraternities in college who don't have brothers in their cell phone list.

At my school, club sports and D1 sports were pretty much their own fraternities. The guys hung out with each other, participated in service projects and the club sports even held formals. There was some crossover of members in sports and fraternities, but it wasn't much. I'm pretty sure those guys in sports will still be good friends once they graduate and will probably be friends for life.

You're stereotyping sports teams the same way people stereotype fraternities.

That describes most of my teammates very well. Being a DI athlete has been a dream and a lot of hard work, but I am the kind of person that is motivated beyond being an athlete and has high hopes for the professional field. Most of them don't take anything else seriously. I like most of my teammates but I am not that kind of person and don't want to limit myself.

Those stereotypes of "you only do this for 4 years" seriously play into why my team hates fraternities. I know I will be good friends with most of my teammates long after I graduate. We are a brotherhood of sorts, and all of my teammates have put a lot sacrifice to be where they are now.

The point is that I want to be a part of a brotherhood that is based on something other than being an athlete. I think having a balanced life is helpful to keep my sanity. In high school I had things other than being an athlete. There are very few crossovers between athletes and frats at my school. Normally an athlete will quit/be cut from a team and then join a fraternity, which just plays into the stereotype that they are lazy, so athletes then then being to think all fraternity members must be lazy and must only care about partying

Has anyone here had any personal experiences with athletes rushing/getting initiated into a fraternity and how difficult it was to balance rushing/pledging with their athletic schedules? Any of that would help

As a former Division I athlete who thrived, along with many other Division I athletes, in my University's Greek system, I find this to be one of the stupidest things I've ever read here on GC--and that's saying a lot.