Each year, the NCAA awards more than $1 billion in athletic scholarships to students who participate in college sports or who are pursuing an athletics-related career.
Want to snag some of the jackpot?
You can’t get the gold if you don’t try. Read CampusCompare’s athletic tips and stay ahead of the game.
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Women’s tennis at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix is going old school.
The Antelopes have a new addition to their team. Actually, an old addition.
At 60, Sheila Johnson is the oldest women’s tennis player to play competitively at the college level. But don’t let her age fool you. She can serve up the ball with the best of ‘em. And she is definitely making an impact for Grand Canyon in Division II. She is 11-6 in singles play and 7-10 in doubles.
Johnson returned to college so she could continue to work with her tennis instructor Greg Prudhomme, who became coach of the women’s team at Grand Canyon.
Johnson decided to get a scholarship. But a scholarship doesn’t mean a free ride: she still has to play by school rules. She has to take nine hours of on campus classes and come up with about $1,200 the scholarship didn’t cover.
Johnson is part of a growing- umm should I say aging- trend. Last fall, Michael Flynt, 59, played line backer for Division III Sul Ross State (Texas) and this spring 53-year-old John Wilson is an outfielder at Division III Penn-State-Altoona.
So if you are planning to play sports at the college level, competition just got a little more advanced. After all, practice does make perfect. And Johnson’s got 40 more years of experience on you!
Welcome to your end zone: a three-part series on collegiate athletic associations and college sports programs.
If you want to play sports at the intercollegiate level, it means that you have to attend a college that belongs to one of the four major intercollegiate associations: the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association), the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics), the NJCAA (National Junior College Athletic Association), or the NCCAA (National Christian College Association.)
This is the first installment. It covers what the NCAA association and its divisions are all about and whether you are good enough to make the cut!
