UPDATE: MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - Student-athlete is a term given to high school and college students that play sports, but high school athletes experience more emphasis on academics. HOMTV'S Madeline Fetchiet investigates. 

The term student-athlete is commonly defined as "a participant in an organized competitive sport sponsored by the educational institution in which he or she is enrolled." Coaches, parents, educators and the NCAA emphasize that student comes first. 

Sam Wegenke, a senior two-sport athlete at Haslett High School says he personally has always seen academic encouragement from coaches. 

"He said there's four things that I want you to prioritize: your religion, your family, the sport you're going to play, and your grades. He says 'I don't care how you prioritize those, but those have to be your top four priorities and school has to come before the athletics," Wegenke said.

The stress of performing athletically and balancing academic demands.

According to Wegenke, being a good student took just as much practice as his sport.  for him, with age, comes wisdom. 

Charlie Otlewski, the football and track coach at Haslett says at the high school level, administration goes the extra mile to stress academic performance. 

The NCAA specifically notes that, "students-athletes, must therefore, be students first," but the term student-athlete becomes more mythical in collegiate athletics.

The landscape of college sports is much different than high school. Otlewski says it's hard to prepare them for the changes. 

In my next investigation, I explore some of the biggest transitions student-athletes have to make when going from high school to college athletics.



ORIGINAL STORY: MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - In part one of the my three-part series, I investigate how high school athletes and coaches define "student-athlete" and how that could change over time. Catch the full story on All Access Sports!