By Yasmin Elgohary

For as long as there have been college sports, there has always been a bad rap that followed athletes. Ask anyone you know about dating an athlete, and his or her first response will most likely be a no.

Like many other college students, my perception of what college life was like as an athlete’s girlfriend, came from movies, such as love & basketball and Coach Carter. In these movies the girls are throwing themselves at players. In real life, it’s like that, but not to that degree.

It is hard to date college athletes because there is a certain standard that has been established, athletes have a very hectic schedule, and at times they can be too busy for a girlfriend. But, if their egos alone are not a deal breaker, the women that follow them around are.

I cannot speak on behalf of every athlete at CCSU because everyone is different, but speaking from my own personal experience. Athletes generally look for the easy girls; in other words, they favor quantity over quality.

The sad truth is some athletes would rather enjoy the company of numerous girls, rather than one really great girl. So, it’s nothing new on a college campus for a male athlete to be “dating” multiple girls at the same time.

I think the biggest issue when it comes to dating any athlete, is that some athletes think they’re ‘privileged’ and that other people’s feelings don’t matter.

Therefore, they assume that they’re better than what they really are and take advantage of other people. But the truth is, no one can take advantage of you, you allow him or her to. So ladies, if you want to be treated like a human being rather than an object, then act like it.

There are some females out there who see an athlete who is popular, attractive, and well dressed, and they go after him, like a lion after a gazelle. Seriously, some of these girls don’t even care what you do, as along as you’re an athlete. They don’t care how many points you score on the court or the field, they’ll just hop right on it.

Many CCSU athletes are often idolized for their on-field accomplishments, as well as their off-field responsibility of being role models for the community. But what’s often forgotten is that they’re only adolescents, some of them are not even eighteen, yet.

They’re playing the same game off the field as their fellow classmates— just with different rules.