Men’s basketball teammates Charles Glover (left) and Damarion Geter ’17 are among four Lancer athletes pursuing graduate degrees. Photo credit: Mike Kropf ’14
It was 2015-16, and Damarion Geter ’17 was not having a good year. A member of the men’s basketball team, he sustained an injury to his shoulder during preseason that required surgery, putting him on the bench for the entirety of what would have been his junior season.
He worked hard to come back the following year, only to suffer another season-ending injury when he broke his foot after only three games. For someone who had been a key player—and a multiyear captain, as well— the situation was beyond discouraging.
There is a silver lining to those two missed seasons, however. In 2017-18, Geter not only recovered and put together his best season on the court but also began a graduate degree program in counseling with a focus in mental health.
“Basketball definitely had the most influence on me going to grad school,” said Geter, a Dayton, Ohio, native who enrolled at Longwood as a freshman in the fall of 2013. “My family always pushed [graduate school] on me, but I didn’t give it a lot of consideration until recently. Then after I missed those two years, I realized I had to do other things besides basketball. Basketball actually opened the door for me—basketball and grad school go hand-in-hand.”
Now in his second semester of the two-year master’s program, Geter aims to put his degree to use helping people like his younger brother, who has autism.
And Geter is not alone in his pursuit of a second degree. He is one of four Longwood student-athletes who have balanced graduate school and the rigorous time demands of being a Division I student-athlete this year. Working on their MBA degrees at Longwood are men’s soccer player Vaughn Fowler ’17, of Chester; men’s basketball player Charles Glover, of Bowie, Maryland; and women’s soccer star Janese Quick ’17, of Orange Park, Florida.
'Basketball actually opened the door for me — basketball and grad school go hand-in-hand.'
DAMARION GETER ’17
NCAA eligibility rules allow college athletes to play out any remaining years of eligibility—even after they graduate— as long as they remain enrolled full time. All four Longwood graduate students completed their undergraduate degrees last spring: Fowler, Geter and Quick from Longwood, and Glover from Mount St. Mary’s. Quick is the only one whose remaining eligibility is not due to injury. She earned her undergraduate degree in three years and is using her fourth year for graduate study.
“It’s an outstanding opportunity for young people to continue their education while still being able to pursue something they’re passionate about,” said Longwood Director of Athletics Troy Austin. “That said, doing it while balancing the responsibilities of being a student-athlete requires a great deal of maturity and self-motivation, so you have to commend any student-athlete who opts to accept that challenge.”
A three-time Big South Presidential Honor Roll selection, Quick said combining graduate school with athletics was “intimidating at first,” but she soon discovered that she was well-prepared.
“With an undergraduate degree, you learn how to balance your time with soccer,” Quick said. “So I had those time-management skills going into my graduate work.”
After Quick helped Longwood reach the Big South Championship game this November, she turned her attention to professional pursuits and landed a winter internship at Rethreaded, an organization that helps survivors of human trafficking acclimate to normal lives. Now in the final semester of her business program, she hopes to continue that work armed with her graduate degree.
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