Correction Appended

At a school like Cornell, many students strive for high grades. But for the sprint football team (2-1), which has placed in the Top-5 in grade point average among men's sports teams in each of the last five years, excellence in academics has become a legacy.

With a team GPA consistently in the 3.5 range, the Red has proven its academic capabilities year after year. Despite the statistic, the team does not dwell on it. 

“It’s definitely something that the guys know about and take pride in, but it’s more about making sure that we continue to take care of business both on and off the field,” said senior wide receiver and tri-captain Tim Bruhn. 

The team as a whole has sent 10 players in the past decade to the Academic All-Ivy team, which is a group of 80 male and female athletes who played key roles for their teams and have maintained a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher. The most recent selection from the sprint football team was senior running back Doug Famularo, who also led the CSFL in rushing last year.

These combinations of achievements in the sport and in the classroom are, more than anything, a testament to the work ethic the team displays, according to senior offensive lineman and tri-captain George Gomez.

“I think what really does it is a lot of the guys are hard workers,” he said. “They’re here because they want to work hard and they want to play football, so I think a lot of the hard work that I see from them on the field is what translates into the classroom.”

Although the hard work Gomez refers to is something the Red intends to reflect in its play on the field, it is hard to say whether the team’s collective intelligence relates to its compatibility during practice and games. 

“In high school and even college, there are guys who are really smart, but maybe they don’t have the best football sense,” Gomez said. “Learning a play is one thing, but learning formulas is another thing altogether.”

“It’s one of those things where the classroom and the field are kind of two different arenas,” Bruhn added.

Though there has to be some kind of separation between the two, it is still difficult for the coaching staff to work around the rigorous academic schedules of the student-athletes. 

“That’s the problem schools like Penn, Princeton and we have,” said co-head coach Bart Guccia. “We don’t have the luxury of the service academies or state universities where they have a set time for practice, and they have all that time.”

Prelim weeks are an especially challenging stretch for the team and coaches. With players forced to leave for their tests at 6:30 p.m., the Red is left with less than two hours of practice time on the field — an amount of time not considered ideal given the preparation required work for the game at the end of the week. 

“The only thing we’re adjusting right now practice-wise is prioritizing our time so our players can get to their classes and exams on time,” Guccia said. 

Though other varsity squads do face the same problem, Guccia explained, the timing of sprint football’s short season — with the bulk of the team’s games coinciding with prelims — makes it even more difficult for the Red. However, some of the players find that this extra pressure to balance tests and practice is a great incentive for success. 

“For me, my grades during the season are always a little better because I am more focused on managing my time,” Gomez said. “I know I have practice at certain times, so I know when I have to actually sit down and get my stuff done.”

When it comes to these academic issues, though, the coaches know what they are dealing with, and have grown accustomed to working with a team of more than just athletes. 

“The coaches are really understanding when it comes to prelim time and everything else,” Gomez said. “They realize we’re here at an Ivy League school.”

“If you have a lab or a test that conflicts with the beginning part of practice, they really try and schedule things around so that you can miss as little practice time as possible,” Bruhn said.

The Red benefits from playing with a roster that, unlike some other teams in its league, provides enough depth to limit the impact of Cornell’s rigorous academic calendar. 

“At least we have 62, 63 players. If we lose 10 of them we still have enough to practice,” Guccia said. 

The coaches have resigned themselves to the fact that this is something they will continue to deal with, knowing the focus their players have on academics. 

“That’s just the nature of the beast,” Guccia said.

The sprint football team’s academic tradition goes beyond Cornell. Former players have become successful in all different fields. Sixty-eight former players have, or are pursuing their M.D., according to Cornell Athletics, and in 1999, the average sprint football alumni salary was $244,500. 

Bruhn, a senior majoring in biological engineering and a minor in mechanical engineering, may join the ranks of sprint football alumnus with medical degrees, as he plans on entering medical school upon graduation. 

Gomez, a senior in the School of Hotel Administration, plans on following in his parents’ footsteps and entering the restaurant business. 

“I plan on owning restaurants,” Gomez said. “That’s my thing.”

Despite the team’s impressive ability to excel on the field and in the classroom, the Red remains extremely modest. 

“We don’t even really talk about it so much, it’s always kind of just been out there,” Gomez said. “I always just thought it was a coincidence.” 

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the sprint football team has held the highest grade point average in each of the last 15 years among varsity sports programs. In fact, sprint football has placed in the Top-5 among men's sports teams in each of the last five years. Data for years prior to 2006-07 is not available. The Sun regrets this error.