Athletes in the Arts

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Courtesy of Mary Cavanna.

Grace Reyna on balancing student life between art and soccer

Most academic programs at the University of Dallas follow a format that is easy to predict even when the subjects are very different. As far as evaluation goes, it doesn’t really matter if you’re reading a novel, surveying 18th-century England or struggling with your metaphysics textbook; in nearly every case, you can expect quizzes, essays and exams.

However, for Grace Reyna, junior printmaking major and defender for the University of Dallas women’s soccer team, student life is not so simple. 

Describing the challenge, Reyna said “It’s very difficult to balance the two, because art is so time consuming. So people don’t realize that, even though I’m not studying for a test, I have to be in the art village for four or more hours a day just trying to finish a project, on top of my other school work and soccer practices/games.”

Reyna first gained an interest in soccer after playing for the American Youth Soccer Organization. Describing her decision to stick with soccer from youth to collegiate level athletics, Reyna said “I just kept playing because I enjoyed the friends I made and playing the game.”

Reyna was inspired by the artistic talent of her older sister and decided to become an artist herself, ultimately landing on printmaking as her chosen medium. Explaining her love for printmaking, Reyna said “ I chose printmaking because I like making many duplicates of my art to give to family [and] friends. I also thought it was a fun medium to experiment with, there are so many color options and different techniques.”

Student-athletes frequently struggle with scheduling as training and travelling consume a great deal of time outside of their classes. With a major in fine arts, this becomes even more challenging, as students like Reyna need to make time to work on important projects in the Art Village.

The University of Dallas derives its character as a liberal arts university from students like Reyna because of their varied interests and willingness to pursue multiple goals in separate spheres at the highest level possible. The university seeks to educate the whole student, not just insofar as they are athletes, artists or academics, but rather as people who are curious about the world around them and willing to explore it for all that it has to offer.

This also speaks to Reyna’s capacity to be a team player; maintaining interests that are very different in character opens you up to other ways of approaching the same problem. In this way, being on the soccer team and having a personal artistic vision gives you a better perspective to see a teammate’s point of view as a person who may have an entirely different perception as to how to solve a problem.

Student athletes who navigate interests in the arts are not just a great benefit to the athletics department, but a great gift to the university as well. Though it can be a challenging balance to strike for the athlete, we as University of Dallas students are better off for having a community that is diverse in its pursued interests.

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