Well, he told me, at least the girls will have some time to study for their final exams. It might be just me, but I can t see Walt Harris telling the Panthers that it was OK that they didn t make it to a bowl game because it would give them more time to study for finals at the end of the first semester. I attended the annual Senior Awards Dinner last week, and there were more and more examples of these student-athletes everywhere. I sat at my table in awe as I watched the people who I have seen on the baseball diamond, on the wrestling mat and on the basketball court being recognized for having grade point averages higher than I could ever dream of. And those GPAs were achieved while missing a lot of classes because of sporting events.
Some people think athletes have it easy.
And some of them do. But the majority of the athletes at Pitt slave away in class all day and go to practice and play games at night. Athletics might be a way for them to pay for school, or it might just be a way for them to do what they love. But I feel very privileged to have covered them. Mario Machi is the sports editor of The Pitt News, or at least he was when he wrote this column.