After years of stories from his high school coach and parents about DIII athletes making it to the big leagues, Chad Edwards ’16 realized that he is not going to become a professional athlete. The senior football star had constantly googled “DIII football players in NFL,” and has just realized that he will not be joining that list.

“He is a good tight end and is very fast. But I had to break it to him that a 6’2’’, 180-pound tight end from a DIII team that has a losing record is not going to get drafted,” said his longtime Dickinson coach Rob Skeeders.

Edwards was found frantically making appointments at the Career Center, signing up for the GRE, and contacting his former high school looking for assistant coach positions. “I have slowly started realizing that I have been devoting twenty plus hours to an activity that means next to nothing on my resume. Help me.”

Jimmy Red at the Career Center said that this situation is all too familiar.

“Every year we have countless athletes coming in during their senior year after realizing that playing basketball in the Ecuadorian League does not pay the bills. We need to crush dreams sooner.”

One area that student-athletes have found success is coaching DIII. Obviously, they then perpetuate the same vicious cycle of encouraging athletes they can “make it.”

As of right now, upwards of 98% of Dickinson athletes think they are “one season away from breaking out and going professional.”