A double-take on double duty
“THEY CAN participate in as many sports as they want," says University Athletics Director Richard Palou regarding dual athletes.
Although no rule governs multiple-sport athletes, Palou claims that the difficulty arises in convincing reluctant coaches to allow their athletes to participate in other sports.
According to him, coaches become hesitant in allowing a player to play multiple sports because of the training time they will miss.
Nevertheless, Palou believes that these student-athletes are young and versatile enough to cope, and thus will not find a problem with being a dual-sport athlete.
He also believes that multiple sports possibly help the athlete.
“[The athletes] spend the whole year training for one sport but training for multiple sports takes away the monotony of things so it could be even better for the athlete," he explains.
In the case of Ivy de Castro, who plays in simultaneously staged sports, Palou says that the decision of which team to play with rests with the athlete.
“That's really going to be a problem because there are days where game schedules are in conflict and she has to decide which she has to play. That's something we have to look at," he clarifies.
Despite these kinds of complications, when asked about more dual-sport athletes in the future, the former Blue Eagle says: “Yes, I suppose so."