Hey y’all! My name is Hayley Bingham, I grew up in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas in a little town called Rockwall. I started playing golf when I was 13 years old and realized right away it was going to take me far. I played competitively and found myself in the position to play college golf so I started the process the summer after my junior year. I went on countless visits and met with players and coaches all trying to get me to their school. My last recruitment visit was to the University of Montana about three weeks before early signing. It was my last chance to really find what I was looking for and I did. Three weeks later I signed my National Letter of Intent and started calling myself a grizzly.
Throughout my four years of being a Griz, I found that being involved in a sport and trying to play at the next level takes courage and discipline. I had to make sacrifices when it came to friends, family, school and a social life. I found myself using my sport as an excuse to get out of going out with friends or taking 8AM classes, but I also realized that it was the reason I had missed out on a lot of things. This was only the beginning, my four years at UM taught me a lot of things about the kind of person I wanted to be, the kinds of people I wanted to surround myself with, and what hard work and dedication really got me.
So here are the 8 ways being a student-athlete has changed my life:
- They tell you that you are a “student-athlete” but often you will feel being an athlete comes before being a student.
On my visit and all throughout my collegiate career, all of my advisors and coaches stressed that I was a student before I was an athlete. But there were times when I found myself having to pick one or the other just like everything else. At the end of the day, my time and energy went into my sport and everything that comes with being a student-athlete. This is just the way it goes, I had to find a way to balance school and golf. I can remember always having to do homework after 36 hole days and wondering how any of the information stayed in my head. To this day, I am still convinced that it didn’t!
- Sports in college is one of the hardest things you will ever do!
Becoming a college athlete was one of this best moments of my life but nothing had prepared me for the road I was starting down. 6 AM workouts, 4:30 AM wake up calls to make it to the airport, traveling all day long, waking up to compete and then waking up to compete again. Doing all of these things while trying to stay up on school work and have a social life eventually starts to wear on your mindset and your body. I remember thinking nothing could get worse than high school athletics but I was wrong. It was a whole other ball game in college.
- Wanting to move on can be normal
A couple times during my four years I thought about quitting or transferring. Things do get hard and sometimes when it seems like nothing is going your way this can seem like the easy way out. I had a coaching change after my freshman year and I thought about transferring but I was glad I stayed. My sophomore year I got injured in the second tournament of the season, ultimately stepping in a hole breaking my foot. I had a long recovery and got depressed and felt like I battled through it all on my own. There were times during my injury that I thought about quitting but I was really glad I didn’t! After my junior year I had another coaching change and wondered what else could happen? I was glad that I stayed for my senior year at UM because it was probably one of the best experiences of my life. So, I argue that anyone who is looking to step away or transfer should remember that they picked this university for a reason. Yes, things do get hard and everyone goes through slumps during their time as a college athlete but preserver through and it will be worth it.
- You never take off that Uniform, everyone knows who you are
I believe that no matter where you go to school, if you are an athlete you are known. I found this out very quickly once I got to UM. I would go get dinner with some of my teammates and people would point at our poster and then point back at us. It was so awkward but people knew who we were. Even if they didn’t know us by name they recognized us and that made me think about the way that I carried myself.
- Professors will think you have dropped their class, you missed that much school
For me, I can think of many times where I would miss up to two weeks of classes at a time. I can remember a specific time where I was in class one day and the professor didn’t call my name on the roll. I remember thinking it was bizarre but just waited until after class to bring it up. Once class was over, I went down to the professor and told her that she skipped me on the roll. Her response to me was that she just assumed that I had dropped the class because I hadn’t been there in almost two weeks. Everything got cleared up but it was one of the weirdest things that has ever happened to me.
- Your team is your family, so embrace it!
No matter what, my team will always be a part of me and I consider them to be family. We went through so much together: wins, losses, losing and gaining teammates, losing and gaining coaches… the list goes on and on. No matter what we were there for each other and because of that we have a bond that can never be broken.
- You will build some of the best relationships of your life
I have made some of the best friends from college golf. We get to go to so many places and meet so many different people that I have met people from all over the world. I am beyond thankful that college golf is the reason these people were brought into my life. If I could give anyone advice, it would be to cherish these relationships and make the best of this experience.
- Once it’s over, it is over… there is no going back
College golf is over in the blink of an eye, it doesn’t always seem like it but it is. If there is one thing I have realized, it is that you have to give it your all, all of the time. Once you make that last putt on the last day of that tournament your collegiate career is over! I didn’t completely realize this until after the conference tournament was over and I was on the plane back to Missoula, Montana for the last time.
At the end of the day, college golf is probably one of the hardest things I have ever done, but if I had to go back and change it I would do it all the same. The experience was unlike anything I have ever been a part of and I will always cherish the memories I have made here. Thank you UM and thank you to all of my family, friends, coaches and teammates who put up with my crazy self along the way.
~Hayley Bingham
Fun loving, golf playing, sweet tea drinking southern girl
What a great blog looking back at your experiences at Montana. We are so very proud of you and can’t wait to watch you graduate in a couple of months.
Thanks for sharing your story. If it even helps one person stay in and keep trying, that would be awesome. Looking back, you won’t regret sticking with it. Good luck in your future “adventures” as well..?
Wow! All so true and well written. So proud of you!?# gogriz
Well done; nice blog. So glad I had the opportunity to know you and coach you. Wishing you much happiness and success as you begin the next stage of your life journey.
What a story. Feel like I lived it with you, but wait, I did. Golf has served you well in more ways than you will ever know. It has helped make you the person you have become. Very proud of you!!
This was an awesome post Hayley! Such a personal story, but relatable on so many levels. Although I am not a student athlete, I am highly involved in my sorority and found many of your experiences similar to mine. Breaking your story into eight experiences/lessons/changes allows for readers to skim the post but also dive in deeper when they connect with a certain part. In regards to feedback, I think testing the main title and subtitles within the post may help in creating the greatest amount of traction. It was an awesome read and very engaging throughout the entire post. Well done!
This blog was absolutely amazing. Being a student athlete myself I don’t think I have ever related with a piece of writing more than I have with this. I felt all the points you touched on are super important to what it means to be a student athlete. I think the public perception is that athletes have life really easy and are put on a pedestal when in reality it couldn’t be further from the truth. It is really hard to try and make people that may not be associated with sports understand what it is like to be an athlete on a daily basis but I think you did a great job at getting your points across.
Haley, I totally recognize myself in this blog, this was exactly the path I took and the sacrifices i have to make in able to play at my best level, the only difference is that I never got the chance to visit, because it is expensive for schools to fly out internationals for just 1 day. I think even though we can’t always party and we don’t have a proper spring break/thanksgiving, we have a lot of advantages as well; as you described, you built some of the best relationships of your life.
I totally get the injury part you are describing, it is the worst for an athlete and all you want is to recover as fast as you can to get back at it, I am in the middle of a bad injury and it is my senior year, it is harder and more depressing than anyone can think of. Anyway, I loved the way you described it, even with great details. Cheers for the great blog!