Toddrick Gotcher, a guard for the Texas Tech men’s basketball team, often faced the “dumb jock” stereotype when he started his academic and sports career.
“Coming into college, that is what everyone thinks,” he said.
Gotcher has played on the basketball team since his freshman year. Photo provided by Texas Tech Athletics Communications.
Since then, he has proven to many that he is more than just an athlete. The exercise and sports science graduate is now pursing two master’s degrees, in sports media and sports management. He hopes to eventually earn a doctorate.
Being an athlete is tough, he said, but being a student-athlete comes with a lot more responsibilities than people assume.
“The public eye is always on us, and every mistake that we make makes the headlines,” Gotcher said.
In addition to attending classes and doing homework, Gotcher works over 40 hours a week during basketball season. Some of his responsibilities include tutoring, practice, team meetings, academic meetings, filming sessions, games, traveling and community events.
“This is our job, and we live for this,” he said.
Clark Lammert, a former forward and current sports management graduate student, agrees most people do not realize how significant student-athletes’ time commitments are.
“You see athletes in class, but you don’t really realize what goes on behind the scenes — the amount of time and effort that’s going into perfecting our craft,” he said.
Lammert, a public relations graduate, said athletes are held to the same standard as other students when it comes to grades and effort they put into classwork.
Lammert frequently had to play against his brother, Conner, who plays for the University of Texas at Austin. Photo provided by Texas Tech Athletics Communications.
Some of the requirements for student-athletes include maintaining a minimum 2.5 GPA and attending study hall hours and tutoring meetings. Student-athletes’ grades determine the number of study hours and amount of tutoring they may need.
Lammert said time management was the most difficult thing about being a student-athlete.
“Budget your time and make sure you are eliminating a lot of outside distractions,” Lammert said. “You go to school to play basketball, but you are also committed to the university as a student.”
For Gotcher, developing professional connections was a challenge because of his limited time.
“So much of our time is focused on basketball that people fail to realize that there is life after basketball,” Gotcher said.
For example, he said, it can be hard for student-athletes to do internships because they have to be dedicated to the sport they are playing. In his case, he had the opportunity to intern with Texas Tech Athletics this past summer. Lammert, who is no longer on the basketball team, is currently interning with Sen. John Cornyn, R.-Texas, in Washington, D.C.
Gotcher, who has high hopes of entering the athletic administration business, said he has already landed an interview with the NCAA for a position after his basketball career ends.
In spite of the drawbacks, such as limited time, Gotcher said he feels fortunate because many people want to reach the high level of sports performance needed to be on a college team. He is grateful to have the opportunity to not only play in front of crowds every night, but also to receive a great education at the same time.
“An education from Texas Tech will take me a long way,” Gotcher said.
Lammert said being a student-athlete taught him how to interact with people that come from diverse backgrounds and work in a team. He said has been able to use some of the life lessons he learned from basketball in his government internship.
“I think it’s going to serve me all the way throughout my life,” Lammert said. “I am very proud to be a Red Raider, and I learned a lot about myself and about life in my time as a student-athlete.”
About Natalie Morales
