Wesleyan College has just 60 student-athletes on its campus. Many Division I football programs have nearly twice that number on their roster. Wesleyan women’s basketball coach Sara Wilson tells us about the campus environment at the all women's school in today’s edition of Coaches’ Corner.

"Having completed my first year of coaching at Wesleyan College, a Division III all women’s college in Macon, Georgia, I have witnessed first hand the tug-of-war that exists between athletics and all of the other elements that a small college offers to student-athletes, most importantly, a quality education. At an institution with a student population of roughly 350 and an athlete population of only 60, we are faced with many unique challenges.

"Our sports teams tend to share athletes due to the small athlete population on our campus. Nearly 20 percent of our athletes play two sports, many of which overlap, and keep one coach from having his or her entire team practicing together for several weeks at the beginning of the season. Many people may look at this as a recruiting problem, but in reality, many of the athletes that the coaches in our department recruit will play for a couple of seasons before deciding that the academic rigors are too demanding and that they would rather focus on their studies than dedicate the extra time to their sport.

"In addition to our lack of a pool of athletes, the athletes that we do have at Wesleyan tend to be pulled in many different directions, because everyone on campus seems to want a piece of their time. Many of our athletes are members of any number of campus organizations that meet on a regular basis and all participate in campus traditions that demand a lot of their time. Being the first college in the world to charter a degree to a woman, tradition is one thing that Wesleyan emphasizes and is most proud of, so the students become completely invested in seeing them through year in and year out.

"For the school, this is a wonderful aspect of campus life; however, as a coach, this poses a difficult challenge at times. For instance, we are not allowed to schedule any competitions during tradition weekends, which fall once during the middle of the fall season and once at the beginning of the spring season. Furthermore, coaches have to schedule practices around the athletes’ academic schedules rather than the athletes scheduling classes around practice times, which as a former Division III athlete I know is common in many athletic departments across the country. Although this sounds relatively painless in the grand scheme of things, our academic courses of study are fairly rigorous and many classes are only offered once during a semester, oftentimes as night courses. Therefore, finding a time each day when the entire team can meet can be quite difficult if the athletes have several night classes. As a result, practices tend to be held very early in the morning or very late in the evening.

"In relation to our competition, our sports teams tend to be far more successful against teams that have a similar campus dynamic than those that operate more like Division I programs. Thus, we try to schedule competitions with other all women’s colleges or schools that have similar athletic backgrounds.

"With all of this being said, the challenges that we face are what create the environment that is Wesleyan College. We could not ask for better student-athletes; individuals who work hard, who stay out of trouble and who go forth from this school and make a difference in the world."