Extra sprints, extra reps and pushing boards are among many other punishments workout ideas easily found inside any collegiate weight room. However, Auburn’s athletes don’t do extra just for being late or poor performance in the classroom and on the field.
There are many women’s teams at Auburn whose coaches have implemented workouts for freshman who fail to memorize the Auburn Creed and alma mater. Sounds rough and it is, but if those freshman persevere through the punishment workouts, long practices, study hall, late-night studying, new relationships and the many other aspects of a sports team, they will come to love Auburn as part of their own soul.
“Being a female and making it to this level at Auburn, there is an inherent blessing in that because its something that not everyone gets to do, especially a female,” said Morgan Murphy, a senior softball player.
Auburn boasts 11 women’s teams with a total of 168 athletes. The female athletes at Auburn are much more than numbers to fill the Title IX requirement. Women who represent Auburn in athletics seem to have a pride unlike any female in the nation.
From Camp War Eagle to graduation day, athletes at Auburn are poured into and instilled with Auburn values. 'To whom much is given, much is expected,' is a good phrase that can capture what a female athlete at Auburn may experience.
For a woman to attend a Division I school on any scholarship, much less a full ride, was unheard of not many years ago.
“It’s really cool how far we’ve come in women’s sports,” said Sarah Wroblicky, redshirt junior volleyball player. “The other day I was talking to this older woman and she said she was really good at volleyball and there was no money and they didn’t have scholarships back then, so she couldn’t play Division I”
The tables have turned and women now have just as many opportunities as much in collegiate sports. The 11 women’s’ teams at Auburn offer three more sports to women than the eight men’s teams do. Also, full scholarships are attainable in each women’s sport.
“For me, it was a huge accomplishment,” Murphy said. “Being a female and playing on the collegiate level, which, if you think back over the years, it hasn’t always been an opportunity for girls.”
The Auburn Athletic Department stresses all aspect of being a student-athlete, and student comes first. Along with memorizing the creed and the alma mater, freshman athletes are introduced to the four A’s: academics, accountability, athletics and attitude.
These four A’s are for every athlete to consider every day. Balancing these aspects of an athlete’s life can easily be lost sight of in the rapid pace of a student-athlete’s life.
Girls are coming from all walks of life to compete as women in college side-by-side. Each sport contains an element of competition against one’s own teammates for a spot.
“There’s over 30, 40 girls on the team,” said Maya Pressley, senior Track and Field member, “Although we are competing against each other, at the end of the day we still love and support on another.”
Some sports this element is more prevalent than others, but when representing Auburn as a team is kept in the forefront of the teammates’ minds, then the competition aspect is put aside.
Whether an athlete is on a team with 10 or less women, such as golf, or on a team with around 40 such as swimming, there is a decision to be made every day, whether you are working for yourself, or Auburn.
“Being on the golf team, there’s nine members, that’s it, we are a small group,” said Haley Wilson, former Auburn golfer and a current professional golfer, “There is a real bond of girls coming together, part of finding your identity was being a female and being an athlete. That’s something to grab ahold of and be a driving force while you are here.”
The rigorous schedule and physical demand on a female athlete will quickly make any team member learn to get on board with the program.
“Our workouts are intense, practices are hard, we’re just as sore, we’re just as tired,” Pressley said. “We aren’t getting as much sleep, we study just as much, it’s not like our majors are different. We go through the same challenges.”
The challenges women face on a team pale in comparison to the pride that fills the heart when an athlete stands next to her teammates screaming “War Eagle!” for her teammate(s) competing or when she hears the same being yelled for her.
While Gene Chizik will not return to the Plains for the 2013-2014 sports season, he’s beloved saying “All In” will. This succinct saying rings true for Auburn athletes across every team. Many coaches use this saying to encourage girls to put aside the caddy behavior, passive aggressiveness, and gossip that may plague womens’ teams and in turn affect them on the playing field, court, pool, arena, course, track and floor.
The mindset the athletic department and coaches encourage has shown its benefits with eight national championships in women’s sports.
“There’s a lot of women’s’ teams here who have SEC championships and national championships,” Pressley said.
These championships are recognized by ring ceremonies in Jordan-Hare and Toomer’s Corner rollings just like after a football game.
The women’s’ teams’ fan base can quite match football, but it does portray the same intensity Auburn students and alumni have for their school gymnastics reached attendance of 7,000 last meet, so large that the arena had to open the upper deck. Less-known sports such as equestrian and volleyball still have impressive fan representation and even when the numbers are low, the cheering makes up for it. These are reasons why it is a unique experience to not just be a female athlete, but to be a female athlete for Auburn.
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