For most college athletes, the guarantee of playing time and scholarship money when joining a Division-1 program is never a given. For Cal Poly women’s basketball sophomore and business administration major, Avery Knapp, none of that was promised.
Instead, Knapp’s journey began as a walk-on, a role she said many people misunderstand.
“People see being a walk-on at the surface level,” she said. “They don’t understand what it’s really like.”
At Cal Poly, walk-ons face the same demanding schedule and early practices as scholarship athletes, but without the confirmation of a spot due to roster changes season to season, and with no confirmation that their sacrifices and hard work will be rewarded.
“You have to have really good time management,” Knapp said. “Every hour of the day is scheduled.”
Despite the uncertainty that often comes with being a walk-on, Knapp said the experience taught her resilience and self-discipline.
“You learn how to control what you can control,” she said. “Nothing is really given to you as a walk-on, so you have to work for everything.”
Her persistence eventually paid off when she later earned scholarship support from Cal Poly Women’s Basketball.
“When they told me, I probably cried,” Knapp said. “I wasn’t expecting it at all.
Similarly, Cal Poly Men’s Basketball player Cayden Ward, a third-year psychology major, came to Cal Poly in a similar situation as a red-shirt walk-on. He was told by men’s basketball head coach Mike DeGeorge that his spot, although given, would not lead to immediate game time on the court. He would only practice with the team and not play in any games during his freshman season.
This didn’t stop Ward pursuing his goal of playing his freshman year. He had the support of his mother along with his personal resilience that carried into a game his freshman year that wasn’t given directly at first.
“My mom just told me, like, when you get there, they’re not going to be able to redshirt you and I know you’re going to have to walk on pretty fast,” he said.
Ward, now in his second year, has become a leader within the team, breaking out this past season, averaging 14.5 points per game, which ranked 11th in the Big West.
“I kind of just try to put myself in that same mindset,” Ward said. “Even before games, I kind of sit and try to meditate into a different mindset that I usually have to put me in that same and same feel as where I was when I was a walk-on.”
Ward’s recent success even got the attention of other D1 Programs, but instead, Ward turned them down. Choosing to rejoin the Mustangs, the team that originally gave him a chance.