SPORTS COLUMNIST PETER JAKEY: Athletes often have to redefine goals at college level
Area high schools have produced some outstanding athletes over the years, some of whom went off to college to seek further glory, but the dreams they take with them when they leave here don?t always turn out the way they want. Some student-athletes find a way to balance the books and the balls, while others realize it?s far more important to put all their energy into their studies, because the results of a college education will have more lasting results.
Over the coming weeks, I?ll bring some of the stories from former high school athletes who have gone off to college, looking to recreate the headlines they were a part of producing in the pages of The Advance sports page for so many years. Some can call their experience a success, while others have had to redefine what success meant to them.
CHRIS KOWALSKI, a 1996 graduate of Rogers City High School and a speedy halfback on the playoff-qualifying Huron football team, was preparing to field a punt in practice for the Alma football team in the fall of 1996. The week-and-a-half of practice, other than running two 4.4 (second) 40?s, had gone bad for Kowalski and the punt play was the final straw.
Maybe it was inexperience, but Kowalski wasn?t used to making fair-catches, because high school kickers usually didn?t boot the ball high enough, and players didn?t get down the field fast enough.
?I got rocked on the play,? he said on the telephone Monday, visiting his parents in Rogers City. The defender arrived at the same time the ball did, going upstairs with the hit, which knocked off Kowalski?s helmet. He remembers seeing stars. Not long after that, laying in his dorm bed, not thinking much of the 1,100 yards he gained for the Hurons the year before, he wondered how far football would take him.
With the financial burden it was putting on his family, the beating he was taking on the field, and realizing he wouldn?t fit well in the shotgun, pass-happy offense, it was decision time.
?Forget this,? he said, packing up everything and moving back to Rogers City to attend Alpena Community College.
THAT FALL he nailed the 12th-rated bear in the state, which wouldn?t have happened if he was at Alma. That worked out well, but so would other events, although they didn?t look like blessings at the time. The Grand Rapids Community College coach called after hearing about Kowalski from the Alma coach and it appeared as if everything was lined up for the fall of 1997.
?I was ready to rock and roll,? Kowalski said. The roll would only come from the continuing roller coaster ride he had been on for a year as a series of phone calls ended things before they started at GRCC. Kowalski was looking to have some questions answered from the athletic director, who became upset and passed along his displeasure to the football coach, who then chewed out a family member of Kowalski?s in Rogers City. Chris had had enough.
Kowalski was determined to improve his grades at ACC so he could enter pharmacy school. He hit the books, much more than during his high school days, and his grades started improving. Kowalski reached the college endzone of academics in 2002, when he earned a doctorate from the University of Michigan. He is preparing to start a position in Colorado after working for a year in Saginaw. In retrospect, maybe things wouldn?t have turned out the way they did if he had made it at the college level, but it?s difficult to tell how things would have gone. Once thing?s for sure, though. ?I have the utmost respect for college athletes,? said Kowalski. ?They are truly student/athletes.?
POSEN?S MARLENE CIARKOWSKI had dreams of furthering her softball career when she enrolled at Ferris State University. Ciarkowski was an outstanding pitcher for the Viking softball team, no-hitting Hillman in districts, and guiding her teammates through the 2002 tournament.
About a year ago, Marlene was encouraged to try out for the Ferris softball team, and knew Emily McLean, a fellow freshman from Rogers City who had a spot waiting for her in Big Rapids. She never got around to it and eventually enrolled at Alpena Community College for the second semester. Marlene says she couldn?t shake the softbal
Playing softball was fun again. ?Everything felt good,? she said. But the difficult part was juggling everything, and that?s what many high school superstars find out when they leave for college. You can?t do it all.
Ciarkowski was practicing at 5:45 a.m., going to school for six hours, and working a job until the evening hours. There?s also an hour of daily travel between her home in Posen and Alpena. It proved to be too much. Grades were more important than throwing strikes, so before the season, she sadly had to step aside.
It was, no doubt, one of the toughest decisions she has ever made, but it?s one that many athletes face. Her story is not uncommon.