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COLLEGIANNEWS.COM Sports A mother’s full-court press Student discusses the challenges of being a mom and basketball star
By Rhett Lewis Collegian Staff
Work the graveyard shift from 11 p.m. -7 a.m., get the kids
to school by 8 a.m., attend your own classes from 8:30 a.m.- 2:15 p.m., pick the kids up at the bus stop at 2:30 p.m. and head home to study and do homework. Repeat daily. According to a study released in 2008 by the National Center
for Education Statistics, a branch of the U.S. Department of Education, around 10 percent of students are single parents at the time of their first enrollment at their first post secondary institution. Tere are thousands of single parents throughout the
country that have made the decision to juggle their own higher education with their ever burgeoning family responsibilities. Tose parents have schedules that closely resemble the one from above. Tere are probably hundreds of examples right here at GPC. Brittany Logan, a sophomore on the Clarkston campus and mother of seven-year-old twins Jeremiah and Mariah and six- year-old TreSean, knows all to well about the time crunch that comes along with being a single mother and full-time college student.
"Te toughest part is the time factor," said Logan. I guess now might be a fine time to mention that in addition to being a great mom and dedicated student, Logan is also an All-Region performer on the GPC Jaguars basketball team. So you can add basketball practice and/or games from 5
p.m.- 8 p.m. to her daily monster of a schedule. Logan, a Decatur native, found her way to GPC several
years after finishing high school. Logan initially contacted head coach James Waldon about the possibility of attending GPC and playing on the basketball team. After several email conversations, the two met and coach Waldon was obviously impressed with Logan. "We met up and discussed my situation and he had faith
in me. He offered me a scholarship and told me he lets the Lord do his recruiting. He said he only coaches players that the Lord wants him to. And I was one of those players," said Logan. During her sophomore campaign, Logan helped lead the
Jaguars to a 23-11 record, the Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association region title, the District J title, and a spot in the NJCAA national tournament in Kansas. Along the way Logan also picked up several individual
honors. She was named GCAA Player of the Week in Week 2 and earned All-Region honors after she averaged 13.5 points and 10.8 rebounds per game during the 2011-2012 regular season. As strong and motivated as she is, take one look at her battling
Rhett Lewis/Collegian Staff
in the paint and you will realize why "strong" and "motivated" are proper adjectives to describe Logan, she realizes that she simply can't do everything on her own. Luckily, according to her, she relies on some of the best teammates around, both on the court, and off it. "Te whole GPC women's basketball program has been a
wonderful support system for me and my family. Especially coach Waldon and coach Shafer, who are always telling me to never take anything for granted, which is something I live by," said Logan.
But her most important support comes from the woman
who raised her, just like Logan is doing with her children now. "My mom is my biggest support system," boasted Logan. Time has gotten a little easier to come by lately for Logan. Tis semester she was allowed to take a leave of absence from her job at the Department of Transportation so she could productively finish up her last semester at GPC. But it seems as if there still may not be enough time in the
day for Logan. "Te biggest part of juggling basketball and being a mom is
that I have to give 100 percent to basketball AND my kids and there are only 24 hours in a day. So time has by far been the toughest part of my tenure at GPC," said Logan. But don't think after that statement that Logan hasn't
enjoyed every minute of her precious time at GPC, and especially the time she has spent being a mother. When asked if she would change the way things have unfolded if she could and if she wished she had a more "traditional college life" than she does, Logan had only one, simple response. "I wouldn't change it for the world."
Rhett Lewis/Collegian Staff
APRIL 25, 2012
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