The sign entering Freeborn County should say, &uot;Home of Minnesota’s best student athletes.&uot;

In the last two weeks I have witnessed a wonderful thing &045; athletes who are also brilliant students.

I took the time to compare the list of honor students printed in our paper and compared them to the athletes from all of the articles on many of the athletic achievements that those same students have bestowed upon our county. Guess what? Many of those athletes are the same ones who also are honor students.

Now many of you might not think this quite an accomplishment, but I beg to differ. I was both a student athlete and a coach for many years and I know what it takes to be both.

When I was in high school doing homework on a school bus by flashlight at 10 at night after a tough game, I can tell you it is not the perfect working environment.

I would say that everyone should experience a school bus trip that is more than two hours long at least once in their lifetime.

Getting homework done is only one of the many worries of a student athlete. Not only do you have less time to do the homework, but you also have less time to sleep.

Sleeping on a road trip is impossible. There is always one person who has had too many Mountain Dews and will not shut up. This person usually was a good friend of mine and even after pleading, would only sit down and be quiet for five minutes.

Homework and the lack of sleep are two of the monster walls student athletes face, but not the most significant. The largest is morning. Yes, morning &045; this time of day is evil. It comes way too early and is unavoidable.

If I didn’t have great parents who, with a lot of patience and an ice tray, would get my butt out of bed, I would still be sleeping.

I remember begging for just one more hour, 10 more minutes, five more minutes, three more minutes, one more minute.

Then, though I would admit to being up, I still basked in the comfort of the sheets. I made sure to crawl from that cocoon of warmth before the ice cubes trays were dumped on me.

Ah, morning. The start of the school day. I remember going to class from 7:30 a.m. until 2:45 p.m. That in itself is a long day, but then the student athlete has practice. Practice would last usually about three hours, and if you were lucky, you could get home by 6:30 p.m.

If you had ice time or gym scheduling worries, you could be practicing at nine at night. Now after all that, it was homework time again. You see even if you are not on the bus, homework is still not being done in the optimal environment.

Oh, and let us not forget that sports and schoolwork are not the only thing that is occupying kids’ time. Combine both schoolwork and sports with extra curricular activities like band, different clubs in school, and church activities and you have more than a full schedule.

Student athletes are a rare combination of skill, desire and heart. The skill to participate in the sport of there choice. The desire to go beyond just being an athlete, and the heart to accomplish both the sport as well as the education.

My praises go out to the student athlete who endures bus trips, lack of sleep, practice, games, homework, mornings, more practice, less sleep and yet manages to

carry themselves with the dignity of a winner.

Winners battle all of the elements and still land on top, and I know that all of Freeborn County’s student athletes are winners.

Scott Schmeltzer, Tribune publisher