When many athletes would be forced to give up their sport, Ithaca College gives student-athletes the chance to transfer to the college in pursuit of an exercise science master’s degree while finishing out their NCAA eligibility with a varsity sports team.
Graduate student Andrew McDermott knew he wanted to play one more season of collegiate baseball before hanging up his spikes. His college career began with adversity, as he tore his labrum and missed his rookie season in 2021. However, this gave him one more year of eligibility. After playing the 2022 season at Quinnipiac University, he transferred to Queens University of Charlotte for the 2023 and 2024 seasons. McDermott said he knew he wanted to find a program where he could finish his eligibility while being able to become a certified mental performance consultant.
McDermott said that through the struggles of his prior injuries, he found the field of sports psychology. He said that for the first time in his life, he discovered something he has the same passion for as baseball.
“I can get a really good education in the exact program that I want toward the exact certification that I want and win while doing it,” McDermott said. “No matter what level it is, that was very appealing to me.”
Graduate student Johnathan Wendt is another student-athlete pursuing his CMPC certification. Wendt, a graduate transfer from Alfred University, is a sprinter on the men’s track and field team. Typically, students in an exercise science master’s program will join a varsity sport as a graduate assistant coach. This can be seen with two of Wendt’s own coaches, Matthew Stasiw and Christian Noa, who are graduate assistants for the track and field program.
Justine Vosloo is a professor in the Department of Exercise Science and Athletic Training at the college. She said that being a student-athlete in the mental performance program offers the opportunity for students to apply techniques learned in the classroom to their day-to-day routines as an athlete.
“It’s really helpful for them to see the theories in action,” Vosloo said. “That comparison to be able to be in it and talk about what they’re learning in class and how they’re experiencing it as an athlete is really valuable to both them individually, but also for the grad program overall.”
A different department is the college’s exercise performance master’s degree program which has also attracted a talented student-athlete. For the past three seasons, graduate student Emma Waite, point guard on the women’s basketball team, was a familiar foe to the South Hill squad. She played her undergraduate years at Rochester Institute of Technology, one of the Bombers’ Liberty League Championship Tournament rivals.
This season, Waite has found a new home on South Hill as she is leading her former rival ball club in assists with 64 as of Feb. 4. Waite said that while the adjustment of joining her former rivals was an odd one at first, it was one she could not pass up because of the human performance program.
“In the human performance side of things, the classes are very intimate,” Waite said. “I get to have a lot of hands-on experience, which differs a lot from my experience at RIT.”
On top of the coursework, Waite is getting hands-on experience through her job as a teaching assistant in multiple exercise science classes. Waite said that knowing she would get an opportunity to be a TA while being able to play, was one factor that drew her to the college.
“I felt like I got the best of both worlds,” Waite said. “I got that financial help and experience and then I also had the opportunity to play.”
One of the professors that Waite has been a TA for is David Diggin, associate professor in the Department of Exercise Science and Athletic Training and program director of the strength and conditioning concentration. The class was an Olympic weightlifting course, and Diggin said Waite had the opportunity to not only get hands-on work with students, but she also gained some tangible skills that will translate over to athletics as she had to work with students who may not have been as familiar with the exercises.
“Oftentimes that requires us to improve our observation skills, improve our communication skills, but understand exercises at a deeper level in terms of what they should look like mechanically,” Diggin said.
Diggin said that the college’s human performance concentration provides students with the skills to design training programs for clients in athletics or physical rehabilitation. Moreover, Diggin said one of the things that separates the college from other programs is that students will also analyze real-life data from those athletes and clients.
“The intention is to prepare the student for their next step in the field of exercise science,” Diggin said. “Some will go more of a clinical physiology route. Other directions that they might go would be working with athletes — either at the high school, the collegiate and maybe even the professional level.”
Waite said she does not know what path she will be taking after graduate school, but she hopes basketball will be part of her future. She said that next fall, as she completes her coursework, she plans to be a volunteer coach with the women’s basketball team.
“I’d love to be involved as much as possible,” Waite said. “I’ve always been interested in coaching after I’m done playing, so I’m excited to be able to dip my toes into that.”
McDermott said that while he always wants baseball to be a part of his life, it is nice being able to put academics first for a change as he is now studying something that he is interested in. He studied marketing in undergraduate years and he joked that he used to major in baseball and minor in marketing.
“I think it’s a good transition for me personally as I transition out of the sport and into a coach or a CMPC role,” McDermott said.
In the meantime, both McDermott and Waite have one thing on their minds as they finish out their playing careers: winning. McDermott said he came from two programs that did not win much and is excited for the opportunity to help lead the baseball team to its fourth straight Liberty League Championship Tournament. Waite said she has high hopes for the women’s basketball team, which is riding an eight-game win streak after a rough 3-7 start to the season.
“I love the team,” Waite said. “I think that we have a really good chance at the Liberty League Championship this year and making the [NCAA] tournament, which I’ve never done, so I’m very excited about that.”
After the 2024–25 academic year, student-athletes will no longer have extra COVID-19 eligibility, and the only graduate student-athlete transfers will be people like McDermott who have injury eligibility. However, Vosloo said the program’s balanced education with theoretical background and field work will continue to attract athletes both in the undergraduate and graduate levels.
“I think what we’re seeing with athletes choosing to complete their athletic career at Ithaca College and do a master’s degree program at the same time is really reflective of the close partnership that academics and athletics has at Ithaca College,” Vosloo said.
