Tamara Statman may have had a student ID card during her four years playing softball at the University of Arizona, but she sometimes wondered if it should have read “Employee” instead.
If practice times conflicted with classes Statman and her teammates wanted to take, practice always took precedence, discouraging some students from pursuing their intended majors. Some athletes waited until after they had graduated, or had exhausted their N.C.A.A. eligibility, to pursue internships or summer jobs. Some, like Statman, who worked for a food delivery service, shouldered odd jobs late into nights to help pay for food, rent and utilities.
“There are some that leave college with not a lot of money, possibly injured, and without any direction on what to do next,” said Statman, 24, an educator now known by her married name, Tamara Schoen, and the author of a guidebook for aspiring collegiate athletes. “Being a college athlete does not automatically mean you have a scholarship,” she added, “but you’re obviously expected to put the same amount, or more, work in. Call it what it is — a job — and they may be able to accept easily not being in their study track of choice.”
Her experiences made such an indelible impression on her that they led her to recently join the newest — and biggest — group of plaintiffs in a case that could upend college sports.
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