For the typical Rensselaer student-athlete, life can be pretty tough. A day consisting of classes, weight lifting, and practices before a night packed with studying while ice is taped to one’s knees becomes the monotonous and painful routine these individuals experience each and every semester during the season. For Rebecca Primm, however, this custom does not end with the conclusion of the fall, winter, or spring seasons. No, for this Biomedical Engineering major, it is a year-long process, one that she manages to not only survive, but enjoy.
Primm, a varsity athlete in soccer, basketball, and lacrosse, was originally recruited to play soccer by former RPI Head Coach Aldo Nardiello. She chose RPI, however, more for the academics than the athletics. “I got recruited by other schools for sports but realized I was not going to play after college,” said Primm.
For her first two years here, Primm only played soccer and lacrosse. This year, she decided to join the basketball team because they were shorthanded. “I played basketball in high school and [RPI] was short players, so I decided to join,” she commented.
Of the three sports, Primm said her favorite is soccer because she has played it for the longest. “I have played soccer since I was four [years old].”
Primm finds the different teammates and the experiences from each sport to be what makes each one of them unique. Despite the rigorous schedule 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Primm uses the three sports as her way of taking a break from school, “[My] teammates help me laugh and practices help me take a break.”
Although soccer and lacrosse give Primm a break from school, she never gets a break from head coach Leslie Khachadourian, her coach in both sports. Neither seems to mind this fact, however. “We joke around about having to deal with each other for two seasons, but I really don’t mind it,” said Primm. Khachadourian echoed Primm’s comment, “There are times we’re both like ‘can we just take a break.’ But I enjoy seeing her almost everyday.”
According to Khachadourian, Primm’s best quality on the field is her fitness. “Her fitness is fantastic—she can play two full games in a row, and you won’t notice a fall off in her fitness,” Khachadourian commented.
Khachadourian knows what it is like to be a multiple sport athlete, playing both sports she now coaches during her undergraduate days at William Smith. “It forces you to time-manage,” she replied.
When asked how she keeps up with school work, Primm replied, “It’s very hard. After practices I am always in the library until late at night.” She doesn’t mind the long hours, however, and being busy with three sports has helped her to do better academically this year.
Of all the classes she has taken here at RPI, Primm has two classes that stood out as her favorites—IED and Tissue Biomaterial Interactions. “I had a great [IED] team. We became great friends and we built an extremely successful machine,” said Primm. “I will never forget all of our times together with the IED red team.”
So this week, when you are thinking you think you can’t keep up with your end of the year work, think about Primm and the rest of the multiple sport athletes here at RPI and the difficulties they experience. If they can persevere through this time, so can you.
