Zach Winn
Equinox Staff
The transition from high school to college can be difficult. Add that to the challenges of being a D-III athlete and the change can be downright overwhelming. Yet three Keene State College freshmen are making the transition look easy.
Freshmen athletes Kaitlin Wheeler (women’s cross country), Angela Silveri (volleyball), and Rushane Kelley (men’s soccer) have not been at KSC for long, but apparently they’ve all impressed their coaches and peers.
“Angela’s been our best player,” volleyball coach Bob Wiener stated simply of Silveri. “She’s already broken into our starting line up, just absolutely excelled.”
Silveri wasn’t the only freshman receiving praise.
KSC men’s soccer coach Ron Butcher has high expectation for one of his freshman, Rushane Kelley, noting his ability to score and projecting him as a “super sub” off of the bench.
KSC cross country coach Peter Thomas said a summer injury set Kait Wheeler back a bit. “She’s been doing really well since the injury,” Thomas said confidently.
He added, “She seems up to the challenge.”
Luckily for her, there’s no shortage of challenges for these first-year student athletes.
The coaches are sympathetic of their freshmen’s situation.
“It’s all new, everything’s different,” Wiener explained. “You don’t know players or coaches, you have to deal with not having a curfew for the first time. You don’t know the system or level of play, I mean it’s like being thrown into a lake.”
Butcher pointed to the change in game-play as the main adjustment.
“There’s two major challenges for first year players,” Butcher said. “The speed of the game and the aggressive nature of their opponents. They have to understand that opponents are just as quick if not quicker than them at this level.”
Thomas said the hardest part of the transition is to be handling the many temptations that come with college life.
“I mean the training is harder, the schoolwork is harder, so we try to tell them, there’s three options at college; academics, athletics, and … recreation,” Thomas said. “You have time to get good at two of those options. You just have to control your social life.”
It seems the coaches will have less to worry about with Kelley, Silveri, and Wheeler. The three freshmen have not just overcome their early obstacles, but excelled in their new lifestyle.
Although they’ve all had the same successful result, they all deal with the college life a little differently.
“I have more of a routine, and if I don’t it messes everything up,” Wheeler said of her structured college lifestyle. “When I’m home I have more time to pick when to work out.” Wheeler said her week includes running twice a day, five classes and 26 hours of work a week.
Silveri said she focuses on getting all of her school-work done before her 4 p.m. practices. As a two-sport athlete in high school, she says she understands how to maintain a balance between academics and athletics.
Kelley said that balancing college life has been “an up and down process” but his team is supportive.
“Everyone on the team is like family. Everyone looks out for everybody and they’re always asking if they can help with anything,” Kelley said. “They’re all great for the whole integration process.”
The notion of teammates being the biggest help so far was echoed by Wheeler and Silveri. When praising these freshmen, it’s important to mention their seamless transition has been greatly aided by coaches and teammates since they committed to KSC.
The athletes remain humble and the coaches warn about becoming overconfident too early. “Our region holds four of the top six teams in the country so it’s very competitive,” Thomas said.
Butcher describes his soccer team as “a work-in-progress” and the volleyball team features a startling nine freshmen on its 15-person roster.
Work needs to be done and improvements need to be made. But for now these three athletes are ahead of schedule and seem to have the right mindset to stay that way.
“We’re all focused,” Wheeler said of her freshman counterparts. “We’re going to stay extremely motivated.”
Motivation is just one of the things these freshmen will need to succeed at KSC.
Zach Winn can be contacted at zwinn@keene-equinox.com