Kentucky coach on athlete compensation: Long-term approach superior to ‘quick buck’
Already treading uncharted waters because of the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, the NCAA this week took a major step toward forever altering the landscape of American sports.
On Wednesday, the NCAA Board of Governors announced its support for “rule changes to allow student-athletes to receive compensation for third-party endorsements both related to and separate from athletics.”
The specifics will be ironed out this fall and voted on by the full body in January, but the writing is on the wall: College athletes are going to have the opportunity to get paid.
University of Kentucky softball coach Rachel Lawson weighed in on the compensation decision and several other subjects during a Zoom teleconference with local media Thursday. As of now, she doesn’t expect the decision to have a major impact on her program.
“At this point … I’m not particularly worried about it. I’m still concerned about their long-term earnings,” Lawson said. “If a kid were to skip practice to go make a thousand bucks or even five thousand bucks, their long-term investment is not going to be that great.”
Lawson has worked hard to create a culture at UK where athletes are focused on achieving stability in their post-softball lives.
“Like I tell all of our student-athletes, the only true independence there is in this world is financial. So, you don’t want to make a quick buck to (risk) what you could earn on the tail end,” Lawson said. “The opportunity that a softball player would have of staying the course, doing what they need to do academically, paying attention to our staff and doing what they need to do from a financial standpoint, the windfall of graduating from Kentucky, doing everything the right way, putting your time into your education … Their windfall as they get older is going to be hundreds of thousands of dollars. So I think we do a great job in our academic support of explaining (that) to them.”
Lawson cited the experience of one of her senior stars to illustrate her point.
“Bailey Vick had four or five job interviews this January and she was offered (a job) by every firm … So that’s going to be a huge windfall for her as she gets older,” Lawson said. “Obviously, if we can get them on the right track and get them in an awesome career they’re making great money in the career they want to be in ... they get to control their time, they get to control their families.”
‘Another run with Autumn’
Lawson also discussed the decision by one of UK’s best players to remain with the program by taking advantage of the NCAA accommodation granting an extra year of eligibility to spring sports athletes whose seasons were cut short due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Senior Autumn Humes went 5-0 as a starting pitcher for the Wildcats and was enjoying a breakout campaign on offense before the pandemic cut the season short. On Wednesday, Humes announced on Twitter that she would return to the team next season.
“We’re obviously really excited to have another run with Autumn. She’s not only an outstanding pitcher but she’s one of the best leaders on our team,” Lawson said. “I think that’s going to be needed next year because in the sport of softball so many of the outstanding players across the country have chosen to come back and finish out their eligibility that you’re going to have a very unbalanced field of play … you’re going to have teams that have 23- and 24-year-olds going against some teams that are very inexperienced having some 19-year-olds.
“So, for us, unfortunately, I don’t know how many (seniors) we’re going to get back. Right now Autumn is the only one who’s announced that she’s coming. If she ends up being the only one we’re going to need that, because our senior class is very small.”
Lawson acknowledged that while the NCAA decision to allow spring sports seniors to return for another year was the right thing to do, there will certainly be far-ranging consequences.
“When you decide to come to a college a lot of times you’re projecting out graduation. So for us, it’s going to make our pitching staff a little bit bigger than I would have liked, which probably would affect the younger kids,” Lawson said. “I think it’ll really affect our freshman class coming in maybe, because those are innings you typically would have given that freshman. So, I think some decisions will have to be made with that class.
“Depending how many players decide to come back it could affect the incoming 2021 class, for sure, across the country. You’re going to have a lot of high school juniors who believe they know where they’re going to college that might be kind of in an unsettled situation.”
‘Everybody’s favorite time’
The UK softball team has found some creative ways to stay in touch during these times of quarantine, and Lawson looks forward to resuming those activities once the two-week dead period ends.
“We had a weekly Zoom call, so we’ll pick those back up,” Lawson said.
The team has spent those teleconferences engaging in heated competition.
“It ranges anywhere from Pictionary to Jeopardy. So it’s kind of like a family game night,” Lawson said. “It’s a way for all of us to see each other, catch up and talk. That’s very informal. That’s everybody’s favorite time.”
So who’s the team ringer when it comes to these highly anticipated Zoom battles?
“You have to give the Pictionary nod to Grace (Baalman),” Lawson said of the junior pitcher. “Not only is she an artist but she’s brilliant. So when someone else is drawing something she’s already 20 steps ahead of them. Mentally she’s just off the charts.”
As far as Jeopardy goes, sports information director Chris Shoals created a game board and he works with director of softball operations Brittany Cervantes to come up with categories and questions — well, technically, answers given the classic Jeopardy format.
“Brittany and I have very serious discussions over text messages leading up to the event, and we make sure it’s fair and equitable to everybody,” Shoals said with a laugh.
Lawson said there are new activities on the agenda once the team is able to resume its teleconferences.
“We’re expecting to do a home treasure hunt and some other stuff,” Lawson said. “Our family, while we’re not together, it’s important to find ways to stay connected ... We’re trying to figure out creative ways to keep our team together within the NCAA rules so that we stay in contact and stay connected so that we keep everybody on the right track and motivated, just feeling that they have something to look forward to in a few months.”
Lawson said her players have even turned her on to some new things during this abundance of downtime.
“They do have an unbelievable capacity to watch Netflix ... I’ve been trying to watch some of the shows they recommend. Right now I’m watching ‘Ozark’ and I don’t know anything about money laundering, so I find myself on Google researching,” she said. “I’m trying to get better with pop culture. There’s no way I would have watched ‘Tiger King’ prior to a quarantine, but I’m trying to keep up.”
This story was originally published April 30, 2020 at 5:59 PM.
