By Eamon Horwedel, Baseball

Every transfer student athlete transfers for various reasons. Some transfer to find a school that’s closer to home while others do it to seek opportunities that better suit their athletic and/or academic needs. In 2022, the NCAA adopted a rule change stating “athletes who transfer schools for the first time would no longer have to redshirt for a year before competing.” This rule change, along with the increasingly popular transfer portal, have made transferring easier than ever before. New opportunities and fresh starts can be really great for college athletes, but it doesn’t make transitioning from one school to the next any less difficult. With so many athletes now hitting the transfer portal, I believe it’s important to recognize some of the effects transferring can have on an athlete. 

 Every athlete has their own unique story as to why they transferred. For me, I wanted a second college experience. I played my first four years of college baseball at Ohio University before deciding to enter the transfer portal after graduating in 2022. With two years of eligibility left, I decided to graduate transfer with the hopes of finding a new college experience that was closer to home. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to play the remainder of my college baseball days at the University of Michigan. 

Not all transfers share the same experiences. Someone who transfers after just one year of college might have a completely different post-transfer experience than someone like me, who transferred after a full four years of college. For instance, some of the transitions I had to make were easier than others. Having already been to college for four years, I knew a lot of what to expect. However, since I was living off campus and was older than a lot of the other athletes, I often felt like an outsider and distant from the rest of the athletic community. 

It was strange starting all over again as a 22 year old. I remember on my first day on campus, I attended the incoming athlete orientation where I was surrounded by hundreds of freshmen athletes. I felt out of place. There I was, a recent college graduate, hanging out with a bunch of recent high school graduates. It was difficult to bond with people right away. In my undergrad, I had built relationships with athletes from all the other teams, creating a small community, but that was all gone now. I was going to have to start from scratch, and not just with forming friendships with other athletes, but I’m talking about everything. Learning about school traditions, navigating the campus, finding out who and what my available resources were. It was all new. Not only did I have to adjust to a new school environment, but I had to adjust to playing under a new set of coaches alongside a new crop of teammates. It wasn’t so easy at first. It took some time before I was able to find my groove balancing a new class schedule with baseball, learning about my new teammates, and understanding a sense of the team culture and policies. On top of adjusting to everything, I still had to find ways to compete and be an expert at my sport. As a new face on the team, I still had to prove that I belonged and fight for my spot, something most 22 year old college students don’t have to do. 

It was mentally taxing going through the fall having to compete at an elite level while adjusting to a new setting. I made the big decision to transfer to Michigan back in the summer, and I carried the weight of that decision with me throughout the year, hoping I made the right choice and wouldn’t regret anything. I’m sure many other transfer athletes feel this way too. In efforts to cope with these thoughts and feelings, I tried my best to immerse myself as much as I could with the school. I found I grew closest with my teammates who were also fellow transfers due to our shared commonality and unique experience that other teammates hadn’t had. In fact, my status as a transfer is also what led me to form friendships with other transfer athletes outside of the baseball team. I was able to bond really easily with them and we were able to learn about each other’s prior college experiences. I was able to learn about a whole new team culture and have pride in a school I never thought I would attend. Along with the many different athletes I got to meet, I was also introduced to the many different athletic department members that made my transition into Michigan a lot easier. These included our nutrition team, academic counselors, athletic counseling team, and strength coaches. 

The journey of a transfer student-athlete is a unique and challenging one. Whether it’s a desire for a second college experience, a change in athletic or academic opportunities, or simply a quest for a fresh start, the decision to transfer comes with its share of difficulties and adjustments. While the NCAA rule changes and the transfer portal have made the process more accessible, the emotional and logistical hurdles should not be underestimated. Nevertheless, as demonstrated by this personal account, with resilience, determination, and the support of fellow transfer athletes and dedicated university staff, the transition can ultimately lead to new friendships, personal growth, and a sense of belonging in a new school and athletic community.

About the Author

Eamon Horwedel recently graduated from University of Michigan’s School of Social Work in the Management and Leadership pathway and interned with University of Michigan Athletics. Eamon transferred from Ohio University to play baseball for University of Michigan 2023-2024.

Michigan gymnasts Sam Roy and Polina Shchennikova experienced the end of their careers sooner than expected, thus affecting their mental health. Now they’re student coaches in their senior years on campus. Ben Blevins featured the duo for MGoBlue.com.

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By Ben Blevins

College gymnasts spend nearly their entire lives participating in the sport they love, and the ending can be difficult to cope with. When the end comes to sooner than expected, it can be even harder to accept.

That is what happened to University of Michigan seniors Sam Roy and Polina Shchennikova in 2018.

Both gymnasts were coming off a second straight Big Ten championship season and were ready to contribute again in 2019. However, for different reasons, both gymnasts would see their collegiate careers come to a close before their junior season could get underway.

Shchennikova was seeing doctors about back pain when she was told that continuing in gymnastics would be too much of a health risk.

“I refused to believe it for the longest time,” said Shchennikova. “When they first told me I was unable to do gymnastics any more I immediately went into a dark hole and refused to talk to anybody. I didn’t believe it was true.”

“When they first told me I was unable to do gymnastics any more I immediately went into a dark hole and refused to talk to anybody. I didn’t believe it was true.” — Polina Shchennikova

For Roy, it wasn’t an injury but a culmination of things outside of the gym that were affecting her in a negative way.

“My mental health wasn’t in a good place,” Roy said. “I wasn’t recognizing it because I was focused on my goals in the gym. I was very quiet about that stuff. When it came time to step away, my initial reaction was anger. I felt like I had failed myself.”

After both made the decision to retire from gymnastics, head coach Bev Plocki offered them an opportunity to become student assistant coaches.

“Any time you end up having to give up the sport you love it is difficult emotionally,” said Plocki. “I wanted them to still feel like they were a part of the team.”

Even though the two were continuing to be a part of the program, the first several months were extremely difficult.

They still wanted to be training in the gym, but were trying to learn how to be a coach instead. It still hurt, it was still hard to accept, and it was a daily reminder of what was taken away from them.

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Read the rest of the story on MGoBlue.com.

American Olympic cyclist Rebecca Twigg is profiled by the Seattle Times. After her career ended, she developed anxiety, which prevented her from keeping a job and considered suicide.

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By Scott Greenstone

When Rebecca Twigg was 7, she rode a bike for the first time. There were no training wheels, but Twigg took off like she’d done it in a previous life. She fell only when she realized she didn’t know how to stop, and steered into a wall.

“I took to the road like I was born to do it,” Twigg says today. “Except for the little part about stopping. I’m not a very good planner.”

The Seattle-raised athlete went on to become one of the most famous American cyclists in the ’80s and ’90s, winning six world championships and medaling in two Olympics. She appeared on cycling magazine covers, in sponsor ads and in features in Sports Illustrated and Vanity Fair.

ut then, in 1996, she left the team abruptly during the Olympics and the next year, retired from cycling. She re-entered the workforce. It didn’t work out.

“Once you’ve done something that feels like you’re born to do it, it’s hard to find anything that’s that good of a fit,” Twigg says today. “Anything else that feels that way.”

Rebecca Twigg has now been without a home for almost five years in Seattle, living first with friends and family, then in her car, then in homeless shelters and then, for a night, under garbage bags on the street downtown. She hasn’t had a bike for years, and no one recognizes her anymore, she says.

Twigg, 56, agreed to share her story to convince the public that not all homeless people are addicted to drugs or alcohol; that there are many like her, who have struggled with employment and are “confused,” as she said she is, about what to do next with their lives. She did not want to discuss mental health but feels it should be treated more seriously in Washington.

“Some of the hard days are really painful when you’re training for racing,” Twigg said, “but being homeless, when you have little hope or knowledge of where the finish line is going to be, is just as hard.”

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Read the rest of the story on SeattleTimes.com.

Michigan sophomore Maddy Johnston cites water polo as her relief from her battles with dysnomia and deperssion. Sports Gazette has the story.

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By Thomas Kaiser

he was only two months old at the time, but Maddy Johnston was already in her element — the swimming pool. The San Francisco native joked that she initially floated and blew bubbles during her lessons, but fast forward 20 years, and she is now a vital member of the Michigan Wolverines Water Polo team.

Those two decades have not been smooth sailing for Johnston however. Indeed, from a young age, she was diagnosed with dysnomia, a learning disability that makes it difficult to remember names or recall words from memory.

But, when she plays water polo she feels liberated, she told the Sports Gazette.

Johnston said: “It takes my mind away from everything else and I can just focus on the game, even when you’re ‘resting’ in the pool you are still staying afloat or eggbeater-ing, so you’re always using energy, getting the endorphins going. I always feel good after and it can be pretty fun to play a physical sport.”

Prior to water polo, Johnston was a swimmer, but for her, “swimming included staring at a black line” which she did not enjoy, whereas she loves water polo because,”it includes swimming, wrestling and scoring on a cage like soccer, and exclusions/power plays like hockey.”

Johnston’s decision to switch to water polo was a terrific one, because she is a talented player. She won gold at the 2015 Pan American Games in Kingston, Jamaica. In 2015 and 2016, she competed for the USA Youth National Team, and at the 2016 Youth World Championships in Auckland, New Zealand she finished fifth.

Unfortunately for Johnston, a severe injury as a freshman at Michigan have diminished her chances of moving up through the national team’s pipeline to the senior teams.

She recalls tearing her UCL — ulnar collateral ligament — in her elbow. “I was in the middle of a counter attack and I got tangled up with this one girl, and she pushed my elbow up and in, as if you were to try and touch your elbow to your opposite ear.”

Johnston has also suffered a couple of concussions in her life, a common occurrence in the sport. “Normally it’s an elbow or the ball from someone’s shot,” she explained.

In addition to having dysnomia, Johnston also suffers from depression and is currently being tested for ADD (attention deficit disorder.)

She said: “Doctors are thinking it wasn’t diagnosed earlier because depression was in combination with that.”

While water polo helps her escape from those daily troubles, she still faces judgement from people around her. “Since I’ve been through a lot most people know more than a few tidbits, but a few see it as offering up excuses to be special or to receive certain attention.”

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Read the rest of the story on Sports Gazette.

The Hilinski’s Hope foundation is teaming up with the NCAA Sports Science Institute to promote mental health wellness in college athletics. ESPN.com has the story.

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By Ivan Maisel

The NCAA Sports Science Institute announced Monday a partnership with Hilinski’s Hope, the foundation set up last year in memory of Washington State quarterback Tyler Hilinski, to support the foundation’s work to improve mental health screening and awareness among student-athletes.

The announcement comes two days short of the first anniversary of the death of Hilinski, who ended his life shortly after returning to the Pullman campus for spring semester. His death stunned everyone who knew him. Hilinski had given little indication that he was struggling.

Tyler’s parents, Mark and Kym Hilinski, created the foundation shortly after his death. Hilinski’s Hope, in its first year, worked with several athletic departments, including Washington State, Idaho, Eastern Washington and Colorado.

Hilinski’s Hope is teaming up with the NCAA Sport Science Institute to promote mental wellness in college athletics. pic.twitter.com/CoSeZyJPNR

— Hilinski’s Hope (@HilinskisHope) January 14, 2019

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Read the rest of the story on ESPN.com.