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Student-Athlete Experience - Rob Trudo

Rob Trudo
Oct 9, 2017
3 min read

Adding the title of "student-athlete" at the collegiate level is a title that is reserved for some of the best athletes in the country. According to the NCAA, over 460,000 athletes compete in 24 sports offered at the collegiate level. It comes with many rewards, but also hard work, dedication, the daily grind of managing both a class and practice/game schedule, and the will to be the best you can be on and off the field. Here at 4Fun Track & Field, our focus is on track, but it does not end there. All sports allow participants to gain skills, knowledge, and life lessons while building relationships that last longer than their time on the field, court, or track. This week, we decided to extend outside of track and field topics, and instead do a question and answer blog post to find out a little more about what the recruiting process and college life was like for Rob Trudo, former Guard for the Syracuse Orange football team.

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Q: Briefly describe your recruiting process (time period, what type of contact did you have with coaches, unofficial/official visits, when you made your decision, why you chose Syracuse).

A: The recruiting process started for me at summer camps. Standing out amongst the bunch while doing drills at camp are a great way to get noticed. I received my first offer (Syracuse) in the spring of my Junior year of high school and from there the recruiting process picked up. I took a lot of unofficial visits and was constantly being taken out of classes to go speak with a scout from some university. I took official visits to Boston College and Syracuse and I ultimately chose Syracuse because I felt that the coaching I would receive there was the best and I was in love with the idea of not having to stay in a dorm room.

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Q: What did a typical day look like for you as a football student-athlete?]

A: So a typical day for me looked like this:

6:45am- Treatment

7:30am – Weightroom

8:45/9:00am – Breakfast

9:30am-1:30pm – Class

1:30pm-2:15pm – Treatment/Taping

2:30pm – Team Meeting/Special Teams

3:00-4:30 – Position Meetings

4:30pm- 6:30pm – Practice

After practice, we’d shower, get treatment, eat dinner, and go to study hall (if needed). Probably got back to my apartment about 9pm most days.

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Q: What is one misconception about student-athletes and/or college football players? Why would you say this is not true?

A: I think a lot of people, from my experiences, have two misconceptions about college football players (or football players in general) that are simply based on one or two true examples. These are that football players are arrogant and football players are dumb. I would say that these aren’t true because of the players I know, the academic accomplishments we’ve earned, and the friendship that I have with a lot of football players in the country. Can it be true for some players? Absolutely. But I think it is unreasonable and unfair to generalize college football players like that.

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Q: Name one thing you learned from your experience as a student-athlete that has helped you both on and off the field.

A: The biggest thing that I’ve learned from playing college football that has helped me on and off the field is to control the controllable. In life, on the field, or wherever there will be things that happen that is out of your control, however, there are things we always can control, our attitudes, our work ethic, our ability to follow instructions, the way we view a situation, etc., and controlling what you can control and understanding uncontrollable things will happen at some point has helped me a lot on and off the field.

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Q: What advice would you give to high school athletes looking to compete at the collegiate level?

A: Stay focused on your goals and work hard at doing and improving the little things because the difference between good and great are little things that are always done right both on and off the field of play.