• Haslett vs. Okemos varsity football.

UPDATE: EAST LANSING, MI - Many high school athletes dream of playing their sport in college, but the term student-athlete can take on a new meaning at the collegiate level.

Charlie Otlewski, football and track coach at Haslett High School, says there are only so many hours in the day.

"When I coached in college for two years at CMU, I think the hardest thing is that they're so busy, and the time demands are so high," Otlewski said.

So when choosing a college, students planning to continue their athletic careers must choose wisely. Sam Rathbun, senior and two-sport athlete at Haslett High School says he's considering schools that have a good athletic and academic reputation.

"I want to make sure I don't go to a school that's just amazing at football and has sub-par academics, or a great school that has a sub-par football team," Rathbun said.

Sam Wegenke, also a senior and two-sport athlete at Haslett agrees. For this student athlete academics come first.

"I'm very focused and oriented around making the student," Wegenke said.

Otlewski says academic support programs are a strong presence on campus, especially at Division I schools like Michigan State. But even with academic support, it's still up to the athletes to keep up academically under tough athletic pressure.

"For sports that travel like say basketball or volleyball who are gone so much, I think their academic support over at the Clara Bell center is a huge component," Otlewski said.

But Wegenke says he can handle it, and that stereotypes about athletes are not always true.

"There are obviously some unintelligent people that play sports, but there are also unintelligent people that don't play sports. ...It's not directly dependent on if you play sports, you're dumb," Wegenke said.


ORIGINAL STORY: EAST LANSING, MI - Tune in to All Acces Sports to catch my story on high school athletes transitioning to college sports!