I played collegiate volleyball at University of Houston, lettering four years: 1977,'78,'79 (Ruth Nelson) and '81 (Dave Olbright).
I earned All Conference NCAA division I Southwest Conference as a senior. Our college team was ranked nationally in the top ten during the late 70s. Some ask me what it was like to be part of that team and that program. We trained very hard. Being part of the team was both exhilarating and all-consuming/cult-like. There wasn't really room for anything else during that time. Except training for and loving the sport!
I trained and played year-round in about 8 national championships, 3rd being the highest finish. (AIAW, AAU, USVBA and NCAA). I have a gold medal for the 1978 Olympic sports festival (Colorado Springs) in volleyball and a bronze for 1979.
I was invited to join the junior national team in 1979 but declined because we would arrive back from the competition (in Hawaii) late in the summer and I did not want the athletic department to register me for fall classes my junior year of college. Do I regret that? Well, yes. (I was 19 at the time. Some things make sense to a 19 year old that dont to an, ah hem, older person) I have never been to Hawaii, either.
Needless to say, balancing the two goals of getting an education and playing volleyball at the elite level proved challenging beyond all reason.
In all fairness, I have to say the experience shaped my feelings about athletics and exploitation of athletes in general. The players on my team were really semi-pro athletes in many ways.
My feeling is that no competitive athletics should exist in Universities, or High Schools, or Junior High Schools. The way it should work is - players should be drafted onto semi-pro farm teams (or olympic training pipelines) and then go to college after a semi-pro farm system (or olympic training pipeline) spits them out. They should play in club teams prior to farm system (look at AAU Basketball or USS swimming or USAV Volleyball), while in High School and Junior High. Those club teams can be sponsored corporations/government grants so that economically disadvantaged families can get scholarships to afford the fees to play club. There are probably so many problems with this idea but I feel that Athletics should be totally removed from the education equation. But not removed from the human experience. Club ball is a bit of a raquet. but the coaches have to be CAP certified and are usually teaching during their day jobs so they do have a lot to offer in terms of mentoring and teaching kids to be good people and how to achieve long term goals and function in a team environment - play a role, get along, communicate, deal with dissapointing moments and share successes.
Alot has changed in collegiate athletics since I was there so many years ago and that is a good thing. All of the rules limiting the power of the university and professional recruiters are positive. But it still happens, the machine of the sport can still chew up kids like they are nothing. (read Friday Night Lights.) And the function and purpose of a University or College is compromised when it has Intercollegiate Athletics programs, for no set of carefully debated and enforced rules can totally prevent exploitation of the athlete or distortion of the University's education mission. Not to mention the impact that attaching glorification of athletes to education has on society as a whole. We are taught by example to worship, admire and celebrate athletes and not scientists, teachers, engineers, architects, artists, craftsmen, nurses, etc., and this is not good.