Student athletes prepared for business world

By Jon Torpey

It's 6:45 on a fall Monday morning at Vert Stadium in High Point, N.C. The Division I men's lacrosse season is still six months away, but the student athletes present are already an hour and a half into their regular workweek. Their presence speaks volumes.

Each has learned how to maximize every moment of the day, balancing the demands of a rigorous academic program and the physical adversity of a team environment focused on the consistent delivery of winning performances. It's what every coach wants to see, but there's something more important at stake here. This is about their future after graduation.

As I watch these early-morning workouts, I don't just see game prep. I see a job recruiter's paradise. Let me give you five reasons for that.

Student athletes are wired for competition and fired up to win. John Egan, a former teammate at Ohio State and now a successful businessman, once told me that an innate sense of paranoia is critical to the success of every great businessperson. Successful student athletes know this better than anyone.

Whether on the field or in the marketplace, yesterday's success means absolutely nothing unless the energy it generates is focused on what needs to be done today. Student athletes are never content, and great coaches push them constantly to exceed their personal best in every drill. Great business mentors do exactly the same thing.

Student athletes understand the team's mission and know how to work for the common goal. Most businesses have a simple mission statement. Its function is to remind each member of the team that the goal is service to others. Those who value the culture of the organization don't just understand the mission statement; they live it. They understand instinctively that the team is bigger than the sum of its parts and learn early the importance of checking one's ego at the door.

Our team's mission statement at High Point University is: "Get better every day." It shapes our culture and defines how we want our student athletes to act on the field, in their social lives, and in the classroom. As coaches, we cannot allow our student athletes to forget or stray from the standards embodied in these four words. If they do, the repercussions are serious, up to and including expulsion from the team. Successful business executives foster exactly the same expectations.

Student athletes understand that managers have different personalities. Anyone who competes on a 50-person athletic team will often deal with close to 60 personalities on a daily basis. Some are good influences, some are bad, and some are indifferent.

Every workplace has its manipulators, super-positives, complainers, honest-to-a fault personalities, caring types, "no-before-yes" guys, just plain lazy people, and sore losers. Each is a personality type loved or loathed in the workplace.

By the time they graduate and join your business, successful student athletes will have learned how to deal with each of these kinds of colleagues. They have also learned that the measure of their character lies in how they handle two types of people: difficult personalities and those who can do nothing for them.

Great coaches expect every student athlete to understand that everyone who serves the team - from the groundskeepers to the refs to the administrative staff - is to be treated with the same respect as the university president. Disrespect is not an option.

Student athletes know how to handle adversity and the word "no." When I was a coach at Dartmouth College, I remember Jim Yong Kim, the school's president, speaking to our athletic department about his work with the World Health Organization on global HIV/AIDS. At that time, while managing hundreds of people who were in Africa fighting this terrible disease, he warned his team that the task was going to be long and arduous. It's no accident that he has often observed that the majority of those who completed their assignments were athletes.

Athletes face adversity every day. On a daily basis, they hear the word "no" so many times and in so many ways that they stop counting. Want more playing time? No. Can I play through this injury? No. Just a little ill? Play anyway. Hit snooze and risk being late for drills? Never. Hearing a teammate or coach say "pick it up" when you think you are working at your full potential (but are really not).

Student athletes are reminded on a daily basis that winning requires discipline and self-sacrifice.

Student athletes understand the importance of structure and balance. A few weeks ago, a headhunter for high-end executives in New York City spoke to our team about his rise through the ranks of the business world. He spoke about the long hours in the office during his 20s and early 30s, and about how that investment of time and effort contributed to his current success.

Success in college athletics is no different. In the structured environment we have created, we not only expect our student athletes to be awake at 6:15 a.m., but also to bring their A-plus game. Between classes, meetings with professors, study tables, lifting, community service, film, practice, and social time, most student athletes are working more than a 16-hour day. Throw in at least one competition per week, and you produce young people who know the importance of balance in their lives.

If you are looking to make a hire with some fire, do yourself a favor. Hold your next job fair inside a locker room.

Jon Torpey is the head lacrosse coach at High Point University in North Carolina. jtorpey@highpoint.edu