UDM student-athletes who do not follow the rules must endure punishments from their coaches.
Freshman Jalen Gibson plays basketball for the Titans and finds coach Ray McCallum’s rules manageable.
“You have to go to class every day, be on time, you can’t be late to anything, because if you are there’s punishment. And stay in the books,” he said.
Those who fall short must run. And run and run.
Reflecting on last summer, Gibson said that the running helped improve the basketball team’s punctuality, but he said it can have a negative impact.
“As much running as we did in the summer, especially now, our legs aren’t working as they should be, but they still have us run on punishment days whenever we’re late,” Gibson said. “Nobody has been late lately.”
Senior Christa McGahuey plays softball.
The softball players’ athletic punishment is a little more grueling than that of the basketball players, she said.
But it includes running.
The rules players must follow are simple: be on time for practice and respect fellow team members.
Those who don’t face “major conditioning.”
That can include running staircases or running on a track or field.
“One of them is doing stadiums, which is 17 or 18 staircases in Calihan in under 17 minutes, or we do half-gassers, which is running 50 yards back in forth within 14 seconds. Usually we do 16 of those,” said McGahuey.
McGahuey said that all in all the conditioning does make the team better.
“It’s just like a punishment that makes us better in a way, making us more team-like,” said McGauhuey.
UDM business major Spiro Pliakos plays soccer for UDM.
Too many rule violations can lead to getting kicked off the team, he said.
“If you miss practice, then usually you’ll get kicked off the team if it’s not for a class purpose, or something along those lines,” he said. “Or let’s say you missed the bus to go to an away game. You’ll get kicked off the team.”
He added, for “minor stuff, like not paying attention, you have to do push-ups or run or something. Academically, if you’re not doing very well, you’re not going to be able to play if your grades aren’t up to par.”
