Pun Alert: Puttin’ Some English On The College Lifestyle
There’s a cynical view shared about most of today’s college students that they’re impetuous, reckless, irrational, occasionally dispassionate and often short-sided. Which is why, when Mike DeArmond wrote about Missouri guard, Kimmie English on Thursday, the follow-up reaction around the media was surprising.
Long story short: the likely leading scorer for this season’s Missouri Tigers men’s basketball team would not only be a dude named Kimmie, but that dude has influenced some of his Missouri teammates to sleep in their gym to cut down on time they’re not practicing.
From the KC Star:
“You should know every inch on this floor,” Mizzou coach Mike Anderson said. “Know all the dead spots, the live spots on this floor.”
No problem with English on that account. No Missouri basketball player has likely ever spent as much time practicing his game. A year ago English frequently slept at Mizzou Arena, so as to be able to shoot after practice and before class the next day.
The practice has been catching. A lot of players are doing the same thing now.
The reaction from this report was generally slanted on the negative side as sportswriters felt there was something depraved, insane and unhealthy. Anyone with this take has been long removed from college, missed out on experience the wild and swinging side of university life or never went in the first place.
Go hang out on any Division I campus on any weekend and tally mark the things you find that could be categorized as depraved, insane or unhealthy. On the Depraved, Insane and Unhealthy Scale for college students, sleeping in a gym to get more practice borders on being quaint.
How is sleeping in a gym to eek out every last moment of practice more unhealthy than the Ivy Leaguer sucking down Red Bulls in the law library four semesters in a row? The only difference here is that English doesn’t spend Thursday night blowing off steam by binge drinking countless $1 Chocolate Cake shots with his study team at the beatnik bar at the edge of campus. No. Kimmie English probably doesn’t do that.
Although for the record, there’s nothing wrong with that. Absolutely nothing.
If I had a nickel for every time I wanted everyone to leave my place 'cause I needed to get some shuteye.
Sports are no less rigorous than law or medicine or anything a dedicated college student has the intention of applying himself toward. Should our world be so competitive that such a lifestyle is necessary? It’s a debate I’ll not enter into now. But this kid, Kim, with the girls name he shortened so that it would sound even more like a girl’s name, is probably living a healthier lifestyle than half of the Mizzou campus.
He practices, goes to class, practices, eats, practices, practices, practices. Sleeps in a leather chair that he drags from the players’ lounge to the locker room, rinse, repeat.
He’s well-liked among teammates, no one with that kind of passion for his team and the game of basketball would get stoned or drunk and the leather chair he sleeps in cannot be worse than the butterfly chair or bunk bed I passed out in 90 percent of my nights in college.
My best summers as a young boy were spent waking up, shooting hoops with my friends until dinner time, going back out until it was black outside, sleeping, waking up and starting all over.
Not only is English (and the other Zoo teammates) healthier than most short-sided college kids, they’re probably happier.
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