By Jacob Brown, Staff Writer
Newman University has been working since 2024 on raising money to improve the soccer, softball and baseball fields, and it should be.
The surfaces of those fields certainly need an upgrade, but there’s another area Newman needs to invest in: Helping athletes recover.
As a student athlete on the soccer team, I have many commitments throughout each day, starting with classes that last until about noon. By then, I am hungry and head to the cafeteria for lunch. From there, I have weights with the team, then it’s straight into practice.
By the time that’s over, it's 5 p.m. The trainers are gone for the day and the training room is closed. We have to schedule appointments with our trainers to access recovery treatments like ice baths. But all the times available are before practice starts.
That’s not the trainers’ fault. We all have lives outside of school and sports, and so do members of our amazing training staff.
So if we feel we need recovery treatments, we have to either go to a gym off campus after practice and hope to make it back to the cafeteria for dinner before it closes at 7 p.m. Or, we can eat before the gym then rush back home to do homework.
No doubt this timeline is making you tired just reading about it. Athletes live it every day.
A dedicated on-campus recovery facility that has cold plunges, hot tubs, saunas, compression equipment like Normatec and shock therapy and is open throughout the day and into the night wouldn’t just make things easier, it would make athletes better. This will also allow our training rooms to not be as crowded and allow our trainers to help athletes who are battling injuries. Recovery isn’t optional at the collegiate level. It’s what keeps athletes healthy, consistent and able to perform at their highest level. Things like ice baths, compression, stretching space, and proper treatment aren’t luxuries. They’re part of the job. Without easy access to those resources, athletes are more likely to deal with soreness, fatigue and injuries that could have been prevented.
Right now, recovery is something that has to be squeezed in if there’s time, if you have a car, or if you’re willing to sacrifice a meal or sleep. An on-campus recovery facility would change that.
It would mean athletes could walk into a recovery room right after practice instead of driving across town to a Genesis gym, each of which has different recovery systems. It would mean recovery would become part of a daily routine, not an added stress. It would mean equal access for every athlete, not just the ones with transportation or extra time in their schedules.
And maybe most importantly, it would show that the university was investing not just in how athletes perform but in how they’re taken care of.
Better fields might improve the game. But better recovery improves the athlete.
PHOTO: Courtesy, Unsplash
