When the Cheering Stops

Syracuse University is known for pioneering in many fields, including athletics. Ernie Davis was the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy back in 1961 and is still the Orange’s only student-athlete to garner collegiate football’s top honor. Lt. Col. Eileen Collins ’78 was the first woman to command a NASA space mission. Vanessa Williams ’85 was the first African-American to be crowned Miss America. Thanks to Assistant Director of Athletics Tim Neal and Strength & Conditioning Head Coach Will Hicks, Syracuse is leading the pack in another field.

Both Neal and Hicks compiled what is known as “When The Cheering Stops,” a guide to life after Syracuse athletics. After coming to SU in 2000 from North Carolina State, Hicks joined the Orange football staff when Neal was the head athletic trainer. The pair started chatting on the practice field, and the idea of the package was launched.

Neal believes that Syracuse and North Carolina State are the only two athletic programs that provide this service for their departing student-athletes.

“I got talking one day with Will Hicks about this idea and he had mentioned that they put something together at North Carolina State,” Neal said. “He and I talked out at football practice actually and we came up with the idea of this program called ‘When The Cheering Stops.’ ”

Neal and Hicks bounced ideas off of each other, but Neal had thought about setting something up for departing student-athletes before.

“We had been thinking for a long time about exiting student-athletes who graduated to go on to better things,” Neal said. “I’ve seen them at reunions or they come back for games and they always ask me questions about how to take care of themselves or their diet or what they should do now since they are not on a regimented workout routine that the University would supervise.”

The ideas swirled, and the two put together a comprehensive packet for student-athletes on how to stay in shape and take care of themselves when their athletic careers end.

“North Carolina State had a brief outline and some general things about how to workout after they’re done,” Neal said. “Then, what I did, I took that idea that Hicks had and wove in some other things in terms of first aid and medical payment policies.”

The packet provides a lot of useful information for student-athletes, and Neal and Hicks had all the resources to put the plan together with their experience and knowledge in their respective fields. After all, Neal is in his 24th year on the SU sports medicine staff and Hicks has been in the strength and conditioning business since 1986.

“The research was pretty much our own fingers,” Neal said. “Especially in the case of Coach Hicks who has been doing this a long time in terms of working out, he gives advice to all types of people. He pretty much understands what needs to go on from a conditioning standpoint for people. I developed a post-workout medical payment policy procedure so I already had that in place, and we just gathered some nutrition and first aid things and put it in a package.”

The packet begins with an outline detailing the University’s medical payment policy. It clearly explains what Syracuse can and cannot pay for so that departing student-athletes can accurately plan how to pay for their treatments.

The packet also contains important information about signs and symptoms of injury and what to do to prevent and treat them. It explains strains, sprains, contusions, fractures, wounds, and arthritis in terms of recognition, first aid, and when to see a doctor.

“A lot of people know very little about first aid in terms of muscular tenderness injuries,” Neal said. “We advise in there what to do. We also advise them to see their family doctor if the injury becomes serious.”

Nutrition is something that few people are aware of, and “When The Cheering Stops” makes sure that student-athletes understand how important it is. After a student-athlete determines his or her necessary caloric intake, the packet effectively explains the dangers of not getting enough calories in the body. In addition, a list of recommendations for healthy eating can provide a base for a healthy diet.

“I’d say very, very few people know anything about nutrition,” Neal said. “What we do is just give them some general guidelines which are something to build on and they can go from that.”

Finally, “When The Cheering Stops” closes with general guidelines to resistance training and developing a program. The packet goes through the importance of intensity, volume, frequency, variation, and rest in a training program and also gives an example program that student-athletes could follow. There are also abdominal exercises and guidelines for cardiovascular activity.

“Now that student-athletes aren’t on a regimented workout routine, this gives them some guideline and some thoughts on how to stay in shape,” Neal said.

Neal and Hicks obviously see the value in “When The Cheering Stops,” but the coaching staff does as well.

“There is a period of body adjustment that occurs from the rigorous physical activities that student-athletes go through in college,” head volleyball coach Jing Pu said. “They need time to remain active in order to have a smooth transition to life after school.”

All involved may see the importance of this pioneering packet that Neal and Hicks provide, but it is ultimately up to the student-athlete to take full advantage of the information provided to them.

Syracuse University Athletics

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