Elijah has been around wrestling his whole life, he joked, “I have been around wrestling since I was in diapers.”
Elijah has many wrestling role models but mainly his father and grandpa who were former wrestlers and coaches. He said, “it wasn’t until I got older in my high school years that I truly found love for the sport.”
SMSU was a no brainer for Elijah as he had family that went to SMSU and family that live around the area. He also liked the idea of being on a smaller campus with more hands-on classes. Being at SMSU gave Elijah an opportunity to wrestle and be active while also being a student. Elijah added, “I wanted to be a part of a team while going to school.”
Elijah has been going to SMSU for six years and has wrestled every year and is also part of the Student Athletic Advisory Committee (SAAC) and Access, Opportunity, Success (AOS).
SAAC is an organization of student athletes that help make changes that impact athletes directly. When asked why he joined Elijah said, “I was voted in by my teammates and wanted to help make a difference for student athletes.”
Elijah is also part of AOS which is an avenue of support for students on campus. Elijah wanted to ensure that students who are coming to SMSU have a positive experience and feel welcome.
“The people in the AOS department are amazing and truly care about student growth and success which is why even into his sixth year of school,” he said. Which is why he has chosen to remain a part of AOS.
Your teammates and coaches can give you advice on how to deal with school, personal life, practice and traveling for meets and tournaments. Elijah said, “it can be a struggle to juggle life inside school with life outside of school at times, but this is when the support system of your coaches and teammates becomes apparent. Being a student athlete can be very time consuming between practices, traveling for competition or spending extra time to study for a test.”
If you need to take time off no matter what you are doing to focus on yourself there is little reason you should not do so, it is important that you take care of yourself to accomplish everyday tasks. Elijah said, “The best way for me to balance this lifestyle, was to find time for myself. Find time during your day to decompress whether that be reading a book, hanging with friends journaling, video games or even going out and just being outside. As a sixth-year athlete I have finally understood that it’s okay to take some time off to recoup and regather yourself and that there is no shame in doing so.”
Elijah thinks that being a student athlete is very valuable. He said, “if you get the opportunity to be a student athlete in college, I highly recommend that you continue playing a sport that you love. You get to meet like-minded people with a similar goal. The connections and memories made through sport are some of the best parts of being on a team. Not to mention you build a support system of friends and teammates. Not only will they push you to be a better student and athlete but will be there for you when you need them the most.”
He emphasizes how important teammates, friends and the people around you are when you’re in college. If you are not in the crowd that helps you when you need it, you are setting yourself up for failure.
Overall, it is a better experience to have people around you that will push you to make you do better, that’s why Elijah encourages students to be college athletes. So, if you’re a high school athlete, it might be a good idea to help consider taking your career to college level and seeing where it can take you.
