Student Athletes Part II

Public parking lots have a set number of spaces. Yet despite the overall number, the prime spaces—the ones directly in front of the building’s entrance--are off limits to the general population. They are reserved with blue lines—handicapped only.  And if the white-lined spaces are full—even if the blue-lined spaces are unoccupied, I may not park there. They are held for drivers with special status. I do not have special status. I may compete only for white-lined spaces designated for the general population.

When my oldest daughter was a senior in high school, three girls that she sat side by side with in classes for nearly the entirety of her scholastic career were headed to the Ivy league—specifically Brown, Princeton, and Harvard. And when Newsday published the SAT scores of these three female athletes, my daughter and I were miffed. Their scores were equal to or less than hers, yet my daughter had no chance of acceptance at any these aforementioned schools. Somehow, I felt that those lacrosse girls had robbed my daughter of a seat at Brown or Princeton or Harvard.

But I was ignorant. I did not understand the process.

What I did not know then and what I know now is that at no point was my daughter ever in competition with those girls. When it comes to college admissions, there are a finite number of seats dedicated to collegiate athletic programs. Athletes compete for those seats only with athletes. My daughter was not in that pool of competition. She was in the pool with the scholars---her own separate division. She wasn’t competing with a kid destined for the lacrosse field, she was competing against scholars (non-athletes) from Syosset or Scarsdale or Horace Mann.

Athletes do not take seats away from scholars. Athletes take away seats from other athletes; scholars take away seats from other scholars.

And if the five designated blue lined spaces in a parking lot are occupied and a sixth vehicle with  special handicapped status shows up, they are not entitled to kick out the car parked in the blue and white lined space next to the handicapped spaces. That is not how the rules work. The sixth handicapped vehicle must wait until another handicapped vehicle relinquishes their space—then they can park.

And while it ires me to see able bodied drivers park in blue lined spaces because a doctor wrote them a note six months ago post-surgery, it’s the handicapped parking law that is flawed, not the person who has since recovered from knee replacement. Likewise, the college admissions system is flawed, not the athletes seated in the lecture hall next to the scholars.