For any team, there is a common bond of passion for that particular sport, and sometimes parallels can be drawn for other passions and for the NIU gymnastics team there are some similar roads ahead.

Out of the 18 athletes that comprise the roster for gymnastics, 10 have career choices linked to the health field, with three in pre-physical therapy and three in nursing.

Head coach Sam Morreale believes even if his athletes are still making up their minds about their major, as long as they are making the grades he will recruit them.

“It’s something that in the recruiting process we look for: academically sound kids,” Morreale said. “It’s hard to be a college athlete. I don’t want kids that are going to struggle academically. Gymnastics, we’re kind of spoiled. They can go wherever they want; these kids are kind of built that way with the time management skills before they get to us so we get to reap those benefits.

While the athletes may succeed academically, the career path decision-making process does not always come easy. This is evidenced by junior gymnast Morgan Johnson, who has gone through a few changes to her major and still has another looming ahead.

The junior Elburn native has gone from the idea of being a lawyer to pursuing kinesiology, but is looking at the possibility of business or hospitality and administration.

Johnson sees herself in a few different settings, but knows she would rather be the one in charge and would rather have gratification of a degree and job sooner than she would have been by studying law .

“I didn’t like how long the schooling was and all the research,” Johnson said. “I think I’d be good at managing. I’ve wanted to own a restaurant for a long time but I never thought I’d do it. Owning a restaurant or a bar would be a lot of hours, and I figure if I could dedicate myself to a sport for so long it would be no problem if I had the passion.”

Johnson also sees this career choice as a way to tread into new territory literally and figuratively.

“I want to get out, that’s what I’m trying to decide,” Johnson said. “As soon as I figure out the location I’ll know if I want to do a restaurant or a bar and if I do a bar, what kind? I want to get out of Elburn and Illinois in general.”

On the flip side, junior Kim Gotlund has known what she has wanted to do since high school and has been following that track the whole way through. A pre-physical therapy major, Gotlund represents the portion of the team interested in health-based careers.

“In eighth grade I went through elbow surgery, I went through a lot of physical therapy, I just thought it’d be a cool job,” Gotlund said. “I took a couple of athletic training classes in high school, which was pretty much anatomy. It’s mostly just basic health classes and science stuff; I’m looking forward to actually getting into physical therapy school.”

Gotlund is going to begin the process of applying to graduate schools. She believes a career in the field of physical therapy relates well to her experiences as an athlete, having been around injuries, experiencing them herself and wanting to help others recover and get back into shape.

Aside from the actual physical conditioning or relation between the health fields and athletics, a strong connection can be made to sport and media.

Junior Natasha Jufko is pursuing a degree in communications, but is still uncertain of what she wants to do. She knows she is not one for deskwork. She is also not one for the medical field; she planned to enter a career in that area and ended up disliking her initial experiences.

“I’ve always been comfortable with talking; I guess I noticed it more in the gym,” Jufko said. “I had a big team back home…I found talking to them before meets I was very comfortable. I figured I’m not a big science, math person so I’d try to find something I’m good at.”

Jufko has been looking into an organization called Gymnastike, which is a media outlet for all forms of gymnastics. What interests her is the ability to be engaged in personal interactions like interviewing, as well as being involved in her other passion in gymnastics.

Morreale believes just being a student athlete in and of itself is an excellent foundation for building integral skills for when the time comes to join the workforce. So no matter if it is wanting to help people get back into shape or rehabilitate an injury, interview and disperse information on athletes, or have the gratification of being your own boss, landing a job still necessitates certain mandatory skills.

“Really setting them up with [a] good work ethic, good time management skills, teamwork that’s involved with being on a competitive team, that kind of stuff,” Morreale said. “The intangible stuff, a lot of these kids are kind of perfectionists. They want to do the job well. I think all of that transfers well into life after gymnastics.”