Expert challenges athletes to make healthy choices

Courtney Perlee

Chief Copy Editor

 

Did you know that the impact of drinking to impairment could last for up to a week after drinking╤leaving athletes unable to practice at 100 percent?

Or that the use of carbonated mixers actually increases the rate at which you become intoxicated?

Sacred Heart University student-athletes learned this last Thursday night, Oct. 1, when Jim Matthews lectured as a part of the C.H.A.M.P.S (Challenging Athletes’ Minds for Personal Success) program, educating athletes on the dangers of college drinking. 

Matthews has spoken to more than 300,000 students across the country at more than 300 campuses about alcohol and drug education.

With a series of books published on the subject of college drinking, one titled “Beer, Booze and Books: A sober look at higher education,” Matthews is currently the coordinator of health education at Merrimack College in Massachusetts and a part of the NCAA’s Sport’s Sciences Speaker Grant Program.

Pioneer athletes gathered in the Edgerton Center were told that they would leave the auditorium knowing 10 pieces of information they didn’t already know about alcohol.

Matthews used a balance of humor, multimedia, and statistics to keep the audience awake and actively participating, but also urged the student-athletes to “think outside the humor.”

Clips of commercials for liquor and beer were shown as well as movie clips featuring alcohol, from Sleeping Beauty to Old School, Beauty and the Beast to Animal House. 

Facts about alcohol were included; about 90 percent of campus violence is alcohol related, and hangovers are actually a mild form of withdrawal from alcohol.  The signs of alcohol poisoning include cold, clammy skin, an erratic heartbeat and faint breathing, and students should never hesitate to get help if a friend is displaying those symptoms. 

In tune with the Sacred Heart athletic department’s position on athletes’ consumption of alcohol (according to the student-athlete handbook, “alcohol and drug use are detrimental to the student and are a violation of team rules”) Matthews also reminded students that “information does not mean permission.”

He reminded them: “Most college students make healthy choices.  It’s the high profile minority that makes trouble and makes headlines.  If you’re an athlete, it’s bigger headlines.”