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Muhlenberg’s Mahy Researches Athlete Mental Health

Juniata VB Favored to Three-Peat; NCC Picked No. 1 In Grid Poll

Author

Steve Ulrich
August 27, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes


AUGUST 27, 2024 | written by STEVE ULRICH

News and notes on the largest and best Division in the NCAA. #whyD3
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📆 What’s Happening Today. The leadership of the DIIICA and NADIIIAA meet at NCAA HQ today in Indianapolis.

TOP STORY
1. Muhlenberg’s Mahy Researches Athlete Mental Health

courtesy Muhlenberg Athletic Communications

“Sometime next May, Kaya Mahy's collegiate softball career will end. Whether it's in the regular season, the Centennial Conference playoffs (preferably) or the NCAA Tournament (even more preferably), ideally it will end with the last out of the last game of Muhlenberg's season.

But what if it ends prematurely, due to injury or for mental health reasons? How would that impact Mahy's transition to ex-athlete and her perception of her athletic experience?

That is what the psychology major and public health minor sought to examine in her summer independent study/research project, The Impact of Normative vs. Non-normative Athletic Career Retirement on Student-athlete Well-being and Transition.”

» Driving The News. “Mahy, a first-team All-Centennial Conference selection at second base last spring, interviewed 12 former Muhlenberg athletes from a variety of sports who graduated between 2015 and 2024. She also interviewed four coaches and an athletic trainer to get their perspectives on how "normative" endings to athletic careers — graduation or end of eligibility — compared to "non-normative" endings, such as injury, the onset of the pandemic or mental health struggles.”

» What She Heard. “One of Mahy's non-normative participants, a former track and field athlete, offered some strong advice on how to cope with the identity loss that comes with the end of an athletic career, particularly one that ends non-normatively and without closure.

"He mentioned that he had groups of friends outside of his sport and really made it a point to have other interests at Muhlenberg, and that he found the transition to be easier," she says. "Even though he had the injury, he was able to fall into those other things and distract himself from the fact that he was losing his sport. So that was interesting, that identity loss can be almost avoided if your sole identity is not all athletics or athletic based."

» #WhyD3. “That, of course, is one of the hallmarks of the Division III philosophy, which treats athletics as an integral part of a well-rounded college experience through a journey designed to complement time spent in the classroom and pursuing other activities — some related to coursework, others extracurricular.”

VOLLEYBALL (W)

2. Eagles Favored to Three-Peat

After winning back-to-back DIII national titles with a 62-match winning streak, it comes as little surprise that Juniata is the unanimous favorite to make it three in a row as the AVCA released its 2024 preseason poll.

AVCA Preseason Poll

  1. Juniata (86), 35-0

  2. Hope, 32-3

  3. Claremont-M-S, 26-6

  4. Johns Hopkins, 28-5

  5. UW-Oshkosh, 37-2

  6. NYU, 33-5

  7. Northwestern, 32-5

  8. Trinity TX, 31-5

  9. Emory, 26-3

  10. UW-Whitewater, 28-5

  11. Transylvania, 27-7

  12. Berry, 27-6

  13. MIT, 31-5

AVCA Preseason Poll

  1. Wesleyan CT, 24-2

  2. La Verne, 25-5

  3. Gustavus Adolphus, 26-7

  4. Washington U., 24-10

  5. Calvin, 22-8

  6. Ithaca, 27-5

  7. North Park, 25-7

  8. UW-Stevens Point, 23-11

  9. Mary Washington, 30-5

  10. Cornell, 23-8

  11. Mount St. Joseph, 24-3

  12. Covenant, 35-3

» Conference Call. UAA (3), WIAC (3), HCAC (2), MIAA (2), SCIAC (2), CC (1), CCIW (1), CCS (1), C2C (1), Landmark (1), LL (1), MIAC (1), MWC (1), NESCAC (1), NEWMAC (1), SAA (1), SCAC (1), UMAC (1)

FOOTBALL

3. Cardinals Claim Top Spot in Poll

photo by Steve Woltmann

“Last season’s national runner-up is the preseason favorite to win it all in Division III. North Central (Ill.) received 26 first-place votes and is the No. 1 team in the AFCA Division III Coaches Poll, presented by Hudl.

The Cardinals went 14-1 in 2023, falling in the national championship game to the No. 2 team in the preseason poll, Cortland (N.Y.). The Red Dragons, who received 24 first-place votes, took home their first national title in 2023 and will begin defense of their championship on September 7 against Hilbert (N.Y.).”

AFCA Preseason Poll

  1. North Central IL (26), 14-1

  2. Cortland (24), 14-1

  3. UW-Whitewater, 11-2

  4. Wartburg, 13-1

  5. Mount Union, 11-1

  6. UW-La Crosse, 11-2

  7. Alma, 12-1

  8. Johns Hopkins, 12-1

  9. Wheaton IL, 10-2

  10. Randolph-Macon, 13-1

  11. Grove City, 11-1

  12. Susquehanna, 10-1

  13. Trinity TX, 10-2

AFCA Preseason Poll

  1. Saint John’s, 8-2

  2. Aurora, 11-1

  3. Hardin-Simmons, 9-2

  4. UW-River Falls, 7-3

  5. Endicott, 9-2

  6. Ithaca, 9-3

  7. John Carroll, 8-2

  8. Muhlenberg, 10-1

  9. Linfield, 8-1

  10. Carnegie Mellon, 10-1

  11. Berry, 9-1

  12. Whitworth, 10-1

» Conference Call. WIAC (3), CC (2), CCIW (2), NWC (2), OAC (2), PAC (2), A-R-C (1), ASC (1), CNE (1), E8 (1), LAND (1), LL (1), MIAA (1), MIAC (1), NACC (1), ODAC (1), SAA (1), SCAC (1)

ROUNDUP

4. What We’re Reading 

» 📣  Opinion. “This discrepancy between academic and athletic experiences on U.S. campuses is no surprise. College football players consistently experience the pedagogical side of higher education in drastically different ways than other students — not because of differences in individual aptitude, but because they face profound structural barriers to achieving a robust educational experience. That’s unacceptable, because education is quite literally the form of compensation offered to college football players in exchange for their revenue-producing athletic labor.”

» 📣  Opinion. “Seven years of college, down the drain.” This line from John Belushi’s character in “Animal House” was intended to be funny because it poked fun at how someone could be in college for so long and still not graduate (or have a passing grade, for that matter). What’s not funny is that higher education has adopted Bluto’s approach towards time to degree.”

TRANSACTIONS
5. Comings and Goings

1 THING

6. Say It Ain’t So, Mister Softee!

“It’s never been harder to be Mister Softee.

Once, there were more than 2,000 Mister Softee trucks in 38 states during the company’s peak in the 1960s. Now, there are only around 630 Mister Softee trucks looping around neighborhoods and parks in 21 states.

Competition and rising costs are hurting sales. Counter-intuitive factors like increasingly hot weather are also denting business. And broader social trends – like the shrinking sizes of American families and even the advance of technology – play a role, too.”

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