Curious Iowa: How do Hawkeye athletes juggle academic, athletic obligations?

IOWA CITY — Claire Ammeraal received a “B” grade in her middle school newspaper class. Well, maybe.

“I think that did happen,” Ammeraal said with a laugh. “But I wouldn’t know. I can’t find my middle school transcripts.”

In her four years of high school and three years (so far) of college since then, however, Ammeraal has not received even an A-minus in a class, let alone a B.

Her 4.0 cumulative grade-point average would be impressive for any biology major at the University of Iowa, but it’s especially impressive considering Ammeraal’s other role on campus — standout setter on the Hawkeye volleyball team.

How college athletes like Ammeraal juggle academics with competition and travel was the subject of a reader’s question to Curious Iowa, a series from The Gazette that answers questions about our state, its people and the culture.

“When you look at student-athletes, you have to be incredibly disciplined,” said Liz Tovar, Iowa’s senior associate athletics director for student-athlete academic services. “And you have to be incredibly motivated not just within your sport, but then also academically. … We provide the structure, and then it’s up to the student to make sure that they finish strong and get good grades and then graduate from Iowa.”

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Tovar’s staff creates a “personalized academic support plan” with every Iowa athlete, which may include weekly appointments with an athletics academic coordinator.

“We talk to the student-athlete,” Tovar said. “We go through every single class that they’re in. We look at every single grade. We report that information back to the coaches.”

The frequency of an athlete’s appointments with academic coordinators at Iowa’s Gerdin Athletic Learning Center may change based on their academic performance.

“Once students are able to demonstrate that they can do well on their own, we’ll probably lessen the number of appointments where they have to come and see us,” Tovar said. “But every student has to come and see us. There’s never going to be a point in which we just don’t see a student-athlete during the semester.”

The personalized plans may include time for independent study or appointments with a tutor or learning assistant. Tovar said 226 of Iowa’s athletes receive tutoring, and the match rate for athletes who request a tutor is about 85 percent.

“Some courses, we’re just unable to offer it — maybe an upper-level course that we can’t cover — but we still try and provide those students with resources on campus,” Tovar said.

How do athletes balance academics and in-season travel?

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In-season travel adds an obvious wrinkle to athletes’ academic pursuits. Ammeraal focuses on prioritizing “because, especially in season, you have very limited time.”

“If we have a flight that’s like an hour and a half, two hours, I would get my slides that I need to take notes on or something that doesn’t require WiFi, and I would try to do that on the plane,” Ammeraal said.

Ammeraal will then use the downtime between team obligations to “study for the next test coming up, make sure all your assignments are in.” Noise-canceling AirPods are her “Holy Grail.”

Travel was especially prevalent for Iowa women’s basketball amid its extended postseason runs in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons. Sharon Goodman — a senior on last year’s national runner-up team who had a 4.0 GPA at the time — said you “just find every opportunity to get some work done” and shared credit with her “really great professors.”

“It helps when you have professors that are into (the team’s success), and they’ll be like, ‘Oh no, just wait until you get back,’” Goodman told The Gazette during last year’s Final Four in Cleveland.

Some athletes may take a lighter class load during their respective season (and make up for it in the other semester and/or summer). Online classes also can be helpful amid heavy travel.

“Not everyone likes online classes,” Tovar said. “Not everyone can be successful in online classes. But maybe having a balance between in-person classes versus online classes — it does help students tremendously when they have to be gone for any length of time.”

Iowa has a policy requiring all athletes to take at least one in-person class per semester. Tovar said there are some athletes who choose to have only one in-person class, but “that’s typically during their seasons.”

“We want students to have a great college experience, and it’s hard to do that if you’re just taking classes online,” Tovar said. “What lacks when you take all online classes is the ability or opportunity to see other students — non-student-athletes — to be engaged in the academic experience.”

Iowa’s approach has produced positive results. Iowa athletes had an 88 percent graduation success rate and a 3.25 GPA during the fall 2025 semester. Iowa’s athletes are represented in every college on campus, with the majority being in liberal arts and sciences — Iowa’s largest college on campus.

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Beyond academics

The scope of the Iowa athletics academic services staff’s work goes beyond just academic performance.

Other pillars of the department’s Hawkeye Life program involve community engagement, career development, health and well-being, leadership and “providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for everyone.”

That varies from financial literacy presentations and resume help, to Iowa’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee raising more than $1,300 for the UI’s Dance Marathon earlier this month.

“Here at Iowa, I think what makes us very distinctive is that we really try and focus on the overall person,” Tovar said. “Not just being successful in their sport or in the classroom, but being successful in life.”

Ammeraal’s next stage in life appears to be medical school as the volleyball setter pursues a career in sports medicine.

“So like a team doctor type of thing,” Ammeraal said. “Ideally, since they started the new professional volleyball leagues, being a team doctor for one of those teams.”

Fortunately, that does not require an “A” in her middle school newspaper class.

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