By Cameron Brennan, Humber College Golf Team
It took me three years of trying out for varsity golf to make it onto the Humber Hawks team. At that time, I was at the peak of my academic performance and had achieved good enough grades to keep me near the top of the class. This led me to believe I had finally worked out the perfect academic-athletic balance.
Little did I know, this was far from the truth.
Fortunately, as a Professional Golf Management student at Humber, we have a late start to classes due to co-op opportunities we can arrange during the summer. Those extra three to four weeks during the summer helped me practice and participate in collegiate events without having to miss many classes or fall too far behind on homework.
Playing for the varsity team was certainly exciting. I travelled with the team to numerous events, playing mediocrely and certainly not up to my standards. My performance on the course progressed along with my position on the team and the feedback I received from the coaches was positive and supportive. This aided my development not only as a player but as a student as well.
The following year proved to be the best year of my college career to date after a summer spent working hard in the gym and on the course to get my game in competitive shape. The team placed in the top 10 numerous times with a 2nd place finish at OCAAs and was victorious at many of the regular season tournaments throughout the year, including winning gold at the 2017 OCAA Provincial Championship and bronze at the 2017 CCAA National Championship.
The most significant change I saw throughout the year, despite our team’s success, were my grades. I had recently graduated from Humber college and transferred into a degree program at the University of Guelph-Humber. While I was still able to participate on Humber’s golf team, I no longer had the leniency of an extra month without classes. The shift from one school to the next had proved to be one of the most difficult challenges of my collegiate career as I was required to miss more classes to participate in athletics.
Although many of the professors were quite lenient with the deferral of exams and certain assignments, it seemed like I was slightly behind and trying to catch up the remainder of the year. It’s not always easy trying to find a balance between athletics and school and it definitely takes a lot of efficient time-management.
This past year was quite successful for both our team standings and some individual performances, too. We won many regular season events as a team and were victorious for the second year in a row at the 2018 OCAA Championship. Additionally, we won silver at the 2018 CCAA Championship with Cam Griffin placing 2nd individually at OCAAs and Conner Watt placing 2nd individually at CCAAs. Along with another successful season came a lot of missed classes and it has been quite difficult catching up on the material I’ve missed.
Overall, I can say that I have thoroughly enjoyed being part of the Humber Hawks and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I’m lucky enough to have been on the team now for three years and every year it gets even more memorable. If you’re a prospective student looking to join a varsity team with any school, be sure to prepare yourself for years of incredible camaraderie, memories and friendships, but certainly don’t forget to manage your time efficiently in the classroom. After all, it is all about being a student-athlete.