Hype and high expectations filled the Hornets Nest as Sacramento State’s men’s basketball team headed into Big Sky Conference play Jan. 5.

There was the Sports Illustrated article that picked the Hornets to represent the Big Sky in the NCAA Tournament, and the star-studded lineup that had seemed to mold together during the preseason. But then leading scorer Jason Harris ran into an Intercultural Communications course and the season was suddenly on the brink of a breakdown. Harris was found academically ineligible for the team’s next five games.

Harris said that it was the final exam that sent his grade plummeting. “I had a passing grade going into the final,” Harris said. “The final was just really difficult.” When asked if he had ever had trouble in a class before at Sac State, he replied that this was the first time.

Harris’ teammate Zane Beekman, a senior majoring in health science with a concentration in occupational safety and health, is what head coach Jerome Jenkins calls the team’s “shining star” academically. “He got like four A’s and a B,” Jenkins said.

For Beekman, the task of budgeting time between schoolwork and athletics has always been fairly pretty easy.

“It has always come pretty naturally to me,” Beekman said. “You can usually find me in the library with a Mountain Dew. I have to keep caffeinated in order to make sure I can get stuff done.”

Beekman sets aside times where he needs to study in order to stay academically eligible. What he does worry about is getting a C-. “Last spring I got a C- and I went back to Illinois and took the class again at my old junior college,” Beekman said. “Classes are so much easier in junior college.”

Women’s soccer forward Katie McCoy has never had trouble balancing the two in her time at Sac State. McCoy, a history major and the team’s leading scorer this past season, regularly keeps her grade point average above 3.0. This year she was named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VIII third team and the Big Sky Fall 2005 All-Academic team.

“Sometimes it’s hard to study after practice because you’re so tired,” McCoy said. “But you have to map out times to study at night because that’s the only time that works when you have school and practice.”

McCoy explained that there are times when studying takes a back seat. “Sometimes after practice you just have to take a nap,” McCoy said. “Soccer is a lot more time-consuming in college. In high school you could kind of slack and still do well academically. Plus I didn’t travel as much to play games in high school.”

Of all the problems student athletes run into, the one constant in their answers is that travel can affect their grades and make it hard to keep up with classes.

“My teachers have always been pretty reasonable with me about the team’s travel schedule,” Harris said. “They have helped me get through it, but it is a problem.”

Beekman admits that he hates missing any classes. “It’s tough traveling when you have papers or projects due because you miss some classes,” Beekman said. “My teachers are usually really good about it.” McCoy admits that her travel schedule has interfered with her studies at times as well.

“I probably could have planned better this last semester,” McCoy said. “But it’s hard when you miss classes because of the travel.” Jenkins offered up a different view on the travel question.

“To me that’s just an excuse,” Jenkins said. “Businessmen travel all over the world and they get their stuff done. “We try to teach the importance of the classroom and getting your work done. It is difficult, but it’s still an excuse.”

Jenkins described what goes into the relationship between coach and player when it comes to academics. “Each coach is responsible for a group of players to make sure they know what their grades are and how they’re doing academically,” Jenkins said. “Ultimately it’s up to the player to tell us they are having trouble and how bad it is so we can get them the proper help.”

Jenkins said that tutors are brought in if a player is having serious trouble in the classroom.

Another aspect of the balancing act between school and team is that other people are depending on another athlete’s grade. The fate of the entire team may rest on a player either passing or failing a class.

“We found out about (Harris’) grade the day before a game,” Jenkins said. “It hit us all really hard, but we just had to deal with it. It’s hard when you lose your best player, but we are very confident in each other that we can thrive even without him.”

Harris admitted that it was hard to tell his teammates about his grade, but it was someone else who he had the worst time telling. “I had a harder time telling my mother and grandmother,” Harris said. “My mom was the most disappointed out of anyone.”

With Harris rejoining the basketball team, a new cycle will begin for both him and Beekman. One more semester of juggling everything life has to offer, hoping not to drop the ball.

Benn Hodapp can be reached at [email protected]