East County student-athletes prove that brains go hand in hand with brawn

There was a running joke I had with my teammates during my brief stint as a Division III college baseball player.

“Academic weapon.”

It was the term we used to describe ourselves in jest and our commitment — or most notably lack thereof — to our studies. Whenever a player had to leave practice early to take an exam or was caught studying on one of the interminable bus rides across the vast state of New York, shouts of “academic weapon” would follow. 

Academics and athletics, traditionally speaking, haven’t always mixed well. It’s ironic, because the majority of athletes in the United States are, in fact, student-athletes. 

Whether youth athletes play for an outside organization like AAU or for their school team, they still have to manage balancing their studies with the time spent playing their sport. 

There’s a reason that the stereotype of the big, dumb jock exists in popular culture. For athletes, it can be easy to slack off in their studies, trading time in the weight room for hours in the study hall. Many of the best players on my college team, for instance, struggled to stay academically eligible. When finals came around, one of our catchers would pick one at random to fail, knowing that he couldn’t pass them all. 

Stereotypes, however, also exist to be broken. At the high school level, student-athletes in East County are proving excellence on the field can go hand-in-hand with greatness in the classroom. 

Multiple athletic programs from Lakewood Ranch High and Parrish Community High were recognized by the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) as Academic Team Champions for the fall of 2024-25. 

The Lakewood Ranch High girls varsity swimming team finished first in academics in Class 4A, with a cumulative team GPA of 3.835. Other top 10 finishers in the school included the indoor volleyball team, which ranked fourth in the state in Class 7A with a 3.726 cumulative GPA and the varsity football team, which finished fifth in Class 6A, with a 3.21 GPA. 

At Parrish Community High, the indoor volleyball team ranked first in Class 6A, with a 3.811 team GPA, while the football team finished one spot behind Lakewood Ranch in Class 6A, with a 3.161 GPA. 

The impressive metrics in the classroom are a testament to the student-athletes’ dedication to both their sport and their studies over the course of what is a long and grueling season. There are only so many hours in a day. 

Photo by Ryan Kohn

At Lakewood Ranch, the school day begins at 7:30 a.m. and ends at 2:30 p.m. For students who don’t play sports, that leaves the entire afternoon and evening to go home, do their school work and spend time with their friends and family. For athletes, however, the end of the school day is merely a midway point.

Following school is practice, which lasts anywhere from an hour and a half to over two, depending on the sport. Then, there’s the travel home from practice — not to mention extra time spent in the weight room or studying film, either before or after school — and the schoolwork that awaits them.

“I’m blessed by how hard my girls work in the classroom and in the gym,” said indoor volleyball coach Jessica Leupold, whose team practices five to six days a week during the season, excluding game days, of which there are two a week. “They’re playing volleyball, which is extremely time restrictive, and they’re taking all of these hard classes, yet they’re still making sure that they have time for their families and their friends. They’re managing their time, which as an adult, I can tell you is a high level skill that we all struggle with sometimes.”

Leupold said that the vast majority of student-athletes in the indoor volleyball program, including the junior varsity team, all take Advanced Placement classes. One of her starters, junior setter Julia Vendramini, is enrolled in seven AP classes, with A’s in all of them.

For an athlete like Vendramini, just being intelligent is not enough to succeed in the classroom, at least not to that degree. It requires effort, planning and teamwork. On game days, Leupold said, the team would gather together at one of the players’ houses, completing their school work before they took the court. 

Lakewood Ranch boys varsity golf coach Dave Frantz, whose team finished second overall at the FHSAA 3A state golf tournament in November and ranked 40th in Class 3A in academics with a team GPA of 3.254, said there is a different mentality in the student-athlete than that of a non-athlete when it comes to performing in the classroom. 

Frantz, who taught AP psychology at Lakewood Ranch for 14 years, said the discipline athletes have in their respective sports lends itself to striving for academic excellence. 

“I don’t think many student-athletes are motivated by the standard GPA that they have to maintain to be on the team,” said Frantz. “There’s an element of ‘I want to excel at my sport, because I love it,’ but also wanting to excel in the classroom because you’re representing your team when you’re there.”

Lakewood Ranch Football Head Coach Scott Paravicini echoed Frantz’s sentiment, saying there is a toughness instilled in student-athletes that shows itself in the classroom. 

“In athletics, you’re always going to experience success and you’re always going to experience failure,” said Paravicini. “When bad things happen, how are you going to respond? The young men and women who participate in athletics have that resilience and character built into them, so if they’re struggling to understand a concept or manage their work, they can persevere instead of getting down on themselves.”

Frantz said that when he reflects back on his time teaching student-athletes, particularly in non-advanced placement classes, there was an almost subconscious expectation that they were individuals who would put forth a lot of effort. 

“Athletes don’t want to let their coaches down,” said Frantz. “That translates to the classroom, where the teacher is another type of mentor or coach. There’s a mindset of, ‘I want to show this adult that I’m with them, that I’m going to perform for them under their guidance, because I believe that as a student they have my best interests at heart.’”