Cody Grossman

Staff Writer

LCCC's Men's Basketball team's Head Coach Marty Eggleston.

LCCC’s Men’s Basketball team’s Head Coach Marty Eggleston.

Every year at the start of the Fall semester the basketball teams of LCCC lose players. In order stay on the team, the student athlete must maintain a least 2.0 GPA. Some students cannot. Not only does this hurt them but it hurts the coaches tremendously. Coaches then have to compensate and replace that player and attempt to fill the role of that certain player.

Men’s basketball head coach Marty Eggleston gave his thoughts on the topic. “No coach likes that. My opinion is that you’re here to be a student athlete, not an athletic student. We are without or key players most of the time. It saddens me a little. Young people don’t get that you have to do both, be a student first. Basketball is the easiest part of the equation. I myself had to learn the hard way sometimes. It’s no different than eating your vegetables before your dessert.”

Women’s head coach Vince Granito, despite this only being his first season, had a strong opinion on this particular topic. “It certainly makes our job as basketball coaches tougher because we have to monitor the academic progress throughout the year rather than just one season or one semester. For me the impact has both an individual and team effect. When players are being added or deleted it can change the team chemistry and dynamics.”

“Players who are used to one role, now might be called upon to play a new role. Look at how adding some of the injured players for the Cavaliers have changed their team–and they are professionals. The players who get added now have to deal, on an individual level, with adapting to start of play. We added two players at the end of the Fall semester and for them they had to deal with the speed of games, which you don’t always have in practice. They also might have some nervous feelings playing their first game, whereas their teammates have already played 10-12 games.”

“I’d much rather have the situation we had this season, with adding players and not having to delete anyone. We had all our players from the Fall semester eligible, so we did not have to deal with deletion.”

Ineligibility plays a big role in the production of a team. If a player becomes ineligible, it is up to the coaches to think quickly and make the correct and necessary change. Also, it is up to the remaining players to embrace their new role in the always constant strive to get better.