On Sept. 5, at 9:53 a.m., Mercer soccer player, Lauren Gassie prepared for her Organic Chemistry test in the ARC, laying her organic chemistry book on the desk in front of her. Earlier that morning, Gassie’s roommate, Stephanie Giangiuli, left Gassie an encouraging note on top of her organic book that read, “If you believe in yourself you can do it. Good luck with your O-Chem test. I wish I could help.” For a second Gassie looked like a normal college student, but the starting sophomore player, who scored three goals, two game winning, this season, has one of the busiest schedules on campus. After sleeping from 3 to 8:30 a.m., she showered and headed to the ARC. “I’m a big studier,” admitted Gassie with a shy smile.
Later, Gassie ran from the ARC to her first class, which lasted from 11:00 a.m. to 12:50 p.m. Right after class, Gassie changed for soccer in the locker room. Then, she sat through another class from 2:00 to 2:50 p.m. After her second class, Gassie went straight to organic class and took her chemistry test from 3:00 to 4:15 p.m. Upon finishing her test, Gassie immediately hurried to a film meeting at 4:15 p.m., where the coach critiqued the team’s game.
After the film meeting, Gassie practiced from 4:45 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. During practice Gassie set aside her worries about organic chemistry to focus on the task at hand. “You have to be constantly focused on what you’re doing at the time,” emphasized the soccer star. “My job right then is to perform on the field, so I need to get that done and out of the way.”  Right after practice Gassie weight lifted from 7:00 p.m. to around 8:00 p.m. At 8:00 p.m., the worn out soccer player took a shower and crammed some dinner in before studying and doing homework. “I’ll go to the library and study until 2 a.m. in the morning…I guess that’s just how it’s flipped with athletes,” explained Gassie. “We do our studying during the night rather than the day because you kind of have to.”
This soccer player and time management expert called her team her support system. “I work with other athletes and we study because we basically have the same schedule…we basically try to get through it together,” said Gassie. Despite the sophomore’s hectic soccer schedule, she still supports her fellow athletes. “All the athletes hang out together so when we have games we’ll go out and support each other…we always go and support other teams because they are our friends on and off the field,” added Gassie.
It’s easy to imagine how someone with such a busy schedule would maybe have second thoughts about playing at Division 1 level; however Lauren Gassie proves to be an exception. When asked what she would decide if she had the choice of not committing to play soccer in her freshman year, Gassie simply replied, “No, I wouldn’t do it any other way.”