The critical adjustment from high school to college academics trips up plenty of students each year. It can be more of a troublesome task for athletes due to time constraints plus newer and tougher tolls on the body and mind.

That’s where the Academic Center steps in.

Panther Academic Services provide what each student athlete needs to prepare for life after the last whistle, with solid support staff.

Cindy Tozer, director of academic services and a former athlete, can relate to the current generation, which gives her a leg up on helping players get the most out of offered services.

“I knew I would like working with students in general, understanding what they have to go through on a daily basis,” Tozer said.

Her wingman, Assistant Director LaVeasy Carter, has laced up at places without academic support for student athletes in his younger days and knows the challenges that the void can create.

“We had a lot of people who were deemed ineligible, and a lot of it, I think, if they knew the rules and knew what was expected of them, it probably wouldn’t have happened,” Carter said.

Required study hours, support services and tutoring bolster an athlete’s chance of succeeding and enjoying their playing days at Eastern.

“Rarely does a student-athlete fall between the cracks. We usually know if they’re struggling, and then we can provide support services for them,” Tozer said.

The Center, now in its seventh year, has seen to it that academic stats receive a boost. Team GPAs, retention and graduation rates have all improved within that time span.

Carter considers the center very important for exposing opportunities for players.

“Athletics just brings in a whole different side of opportunities and things that they can take advantage of that they’d never know about if the center wasn’t here,” Carter said.

Of course, Eastern has a variety of services that cater to the student population, but the challenge of secondary education and Division I athletics creates a unique need that the center fulfills.

“Its like having a full-time job,” Tozer said. “They have practice, competition, traveling on the weekends, sometimes mid-week. Other students can just be students. It’s a challenge for some of them because of the weights in the morning and the practices in the afternoon. They really have to be on their game constantly. They have to manage their time a lot better than regular students do.”

Carter credits the pressure that athletes feel as a primary need for unique support services.

“Time is not on their side,” Carter said. “The general student population can pace themselves, explore a little bit more and kind of take their time. Athletes don’t really have that time.”

One final key to the development of student-athletes is the relationship that Tozer, Carter and others working in academic support have with the Panther coaching staffs.

“It starts with recruitment, and our coaches do a really good job of recruiting strong academic-minded young men and women,” Tozer said. “We have a good partnership where if there is an issue with a student-athlete we can talk to our coaches, and they support what we’re doing.”

Joshua Bryant can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].