Finding ways to juggle football, academics no problem for some

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) Kelly Jennings was his high school&#39;s top scholar-athlete. And he saw no reason to change his ways once getting to college.<br> <br> Sure, football has been Jennings&#39; top priority since coming to Miami. Yet it hasn&#39;t been the only priority, proven by him already having a degree in finance and pursuing another in business management. He carries a higher grade-point average than most and still has time to be a star cornerback for the Hurricanes.<br> <br> ``People do have a view that&#39;s kind of skewed, that athletes get everything easier,&#39;&#39; Jennings said. ``With school and all the time we have to dedicate to football, you don&#39;t have a whole lot of time to study. So for us, it&#39;s all about getting your priorities together like I did, and it paid off.&#39;&#39;<br> <br> Perhaps lost in the spectacle that engulfs college football in Florida is the fact that some true student-athletes are still out there, ones finding the time to balance the overwhelming time demands of their sport with their academic chores and responsibilities.<br> <br> Miami has at least 10 players many of them starters, like Jennings who already have a degree and are either pursuing a second bachelors&#39; or have moved into master&#39;s degree programs. And the Hurricanes proudly point out that their school isn&#39;t exactly easy to get into.<br> <br> Eric Winston knows his future is set, one way or another. The Hurricanes&#39; standout left tackle already has his degree in international finance and marketing, and he&#39;s studying political science this year. Plus, he&#39;ll likely be a high first-round NFL draft pick in 2006 one commanding a multimillion-dollar contract.<br> <br> ``The people who succeed in college are the mature people that are willing to balance their schedule and not always have to go out, not always have to do something,&#39;&#39; Winston said. ``They&#39;re willing to stay in at night to finish something. This is a tough school. You don&#39;t have a 1250 (on the SATs), they probably don&#39;t look at you.&#39;&#39;<br> <br> At Florida State, center David Castillo is another who&#39;s doing his part to debunk the ``dumb jock&#39;&#39; stereotype that&#39;s long been attached to practically every college athlete.<br> <br> He graduated with a 3.5 GPA in exercise science, and is working on a second degree in dietics. And this month, he&#39;ll take his Medical College Admission Test hoping to gain admission to Florida State&#39;s medical school, where Castillo would like to study pediatrics or orthopedic surgery.<br> <br> The surgical track seems logical for Castillo: He&#39;s a sixth-year senior, eligibility-wise, because of six surgeries during his injury-riddled career with the Seminoles.<br> <br> ``My grades and MCAT scores and everything else isn&#39;t going to be up to what the normal student is because all they have to do is go to school,&#39;&#39; Castillo said. ``But you know, football is a full-time job here. It&#39;s a lot of sacrifice. A lot of time my friends are going out on a Friday night or a Saturday night ... and I&#39;m home studying. But that&#39;s a choice I make and someday it&#39;s going to pay off.&#39;&#39;<br> <br> Vernell Brown, a starting cornerback at Florida, knows the NFL may not come calling for him.<br> <br> Brown graduated with a 3.0 GPA last spring from Florida&#39;s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He is pursuing his master&#39;s in Family, Youth and Community Sciences, studying problems, issues and policies affecting families, youth and communities.<br> <br> ``A lot of freshmen come in with this NFL mind-set and only 1 percent of college football players make it in the NFL,&#39;&#39; Brown said. ``So what happens to those guys who leave school early and don&#39;t end up making it in the NFL? They don&#39;t get their degree and they don&#39;t have anything to fall back on.&#39;&#39;<br> <br> Unlike some who may think that time devoted to football would take away from academics, and vice versa, Brown insists that isn&#39;t the case.<br> <br> ``If you&#39;re doing well in the classroom, then you&#39;re usually doing well on the field,&#39;&#39; he said. ``And if you go bad in the classroom, you usually go bad on the field.&#39;&#39;<br> <br> If players need proof that juggling sports and school pays off, they need look no further than defensive lineman Matt Walters of the Miami Dolphins.<br> <br> Walters was an exceptional student at Miami, and he still laments the amount of sleep lost, how homework and studying would last into the pre-dawn hours, how some social aspects were sacrificed along the way.<br> <br> ``There were days that went by where I didn&#39;t have more than one or two hours of sleep for three or four days in a row,&#39;&#39; Walters said. ``I used to enjoy plane trips because it would give me extra time to do my homework.&#39;&#39;<br> <br> Still, he made it work. Walters a mechanical engineering major was the Big East&#39;s football scholar-athlete of the year in 2002, plus a first-team Academic All-American. And when his football days are done, he&#39;ll be able to pursue whatever he wants.<br> <br> ``While I was doing it, I was thinking to myself, &#39;man, I don&#39;t know why I&#39;m doing this,&#39;&#39;&#39; Walters said. ``But now that I&#39;ve done it and it&#39;s over with and I&#39;ve got my master&#39;s degree and I&#39;m done with that, I&#39;m really happy that I did it. I look back on it now, it was all worth it.&#39;&#39;<br> <br> (Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)