Back To School

Maurice Edu’s parents were both teachers, and growing up it was understood the future college and pro soccer star wouldn’t be permitted time for athletic pursuits if he didn’t maintain strong grades in school.

That background was in mind when he faced a pivotal decision after completing his junior season: Turn pro, or stick around for his senior year.

Edu ultimately entered the pro ranks, where he was the top pick in the 2007 MLS SuperDraft and the league’s rookie of the year. The midfielder would play both domestically and in Europe, and make nearly 50 appearances for the U.S. National Team. But there was always a promise he made to his mother to wrap up his degree.

In a perfect world, he would have done some of the coursework early in his pro career when he was still thinking about school. However, he pushed it off, unsure of the amount of time he would have to dedicate to such an effort.

Later, when he looked into the possibility, he discovered many of his remaining classes needed to be taken in person—not an easy task for someone living on the other side of the country.

Then the pandemic hit, and suddenly living in California wasn’t such an obstacle.

“It just worked out because everything is now virtual,” said Edu, who is taking his final four classes this spring to complete a business management degree. “When I recognized that, it was like ‘Now or never.’ I have an 18-month-old son as well, so the idea of being away from home for an extended period of time, it just wasn’t going to happen.”

Edu is just one example of former Terrapin student-athletes whose final game at Maryland didn’t mark their final college accomplishment.

D’Qwell Jackson, the ACC’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2005 who went on to play more than a decade as an NFL linebacker, completed his degree in recent years. Former Terp field hockey standout Linnea Gonzales and ex-baseball star AJ Lee both went back to school when the pandemic put their athletic pursuits on pause.

In all, associate director of academic support Carl Hill said roughly a dozen former Terps have graduated in the last two years after an academic hiatus. Hill coordinates the Maryland Way Guarantee program, which was established in the 2014-15 school year and among other things provides tuition, books and fees for any student-athlete who leaves in good academic standing and returns to complete his or her degree.

There are athletes like Edu, who knocked out his remaining classes in one academic year. And there are others gradually chipping away, one or two classes at a time.

“Slow motion is better than no motion,” Hill said.

Hill, who has worked in academic support for nearly 15 years, said it is an “amazing” feeling when a former student he counseled reaches out to let him know they graduated. In his current role, he helps facilitate those opportunities for former Terps, making sure they know what steps they need to take to move closer to a degree.

Ultimately, though, it’s up to the student to put in the effort to follow through on everything, and then do the classroom work to complete the task.

“At the end of the day, let’s be honest: Whatever you did in your professional athlete career, in order to get that job or position or salary you want, you’re going to need a college degree unless you’re already an entrepreneur,” Hill said. “It's the degree, but it’s also more than that. It’s the former athlete being able to show the world ‘Hey, I took a break for a minute, but I went back and completed the most important part.’”

Unlike some older athletes, Gonzales knew all about the Maryland Way Guarantee program during her recruiting process. Coach Missy Meharg emphasized it was an option well before Gonzales arrived on campus for a career that would culminate with Big Ten and National Player of the Year honors in 2018.

By the time that season ended, Gonzales had about a semester’s worth of classes left to complete and figured she would finish in the spring. But the coach of the U.S. National Team called to gauge her interest in joining the roster, the sort of chance few in the sport receive.

Gonzales then consulted with Maryland’s coaching staff, which reminded her of the support the athletic department would provide in the long run.

“They were like ‘Go for it. If this is what you want, go for it. You can always come back and finish your degree, but you’re young now and the opportunity is here,’” Gonzales said.

Much like Edu, Gonzales used the pandemic as an opportunity to put a bow on her academics. With national team training conducted remotely for nearly all of last year, Gonzales methodically went about taking the final classes in her pursuit of a criminology degree.

She completed one class for each summer session, then handled two more classes in the fall. Finally, she knocked out two classes during the winter term as her return to training with teammates in March grew closer.

“I’m grateful because they were flexible enough to break up my classes so I didn’t have to do a full load all at once,” Gonzales said.

One of the fascinating byproducts for those returning to school—especially after an extended career—is a more fulfilling academic experience. Edu, who is now working as a soccer analyst for Fox, said his life experience allows him to far more readily apply the subject matter of a class than when he was in school the first time.

There’s also an understandable inclination for any college student to be thinking about what is still to come when they enter the workforce. That’s probably amplified for an athlete whose opportunities are usually front-loaded into their adult life.

“You start getting that itch—my dream is this much closer,” Edu said. “So I think it’s somewhat easy to have one eye, maybe one and a half eyes, on sport in comparison to schooling. I appreciate and value so much more of what I’m learning in these classes now than I think I did when I was in school the first time around.”

Edu said he would be thrilled to eventually return to Maryland for a graduation ceremony with his fiancee and son, especially since the latter didn’t get to share in any of his soccer career. But the accomplishment of earning a degree is something he’ll treasure regardless.

The same is true of Gonzales, for whom checking that big box was a priority even if it happened a couple of years later than she originally planned.

“I definitely wanted to finish up and get that degree,” Gonzales said. “I didn’t just go to Maryland for the field hockey aspect. I went in there wanting to get a good education and a degree out of it, too. To be able to finish up and have the support from the coaches and the academic advisors and them making it such a smooth transition, it meant a lot to me.”

Patrick Stevens (Maryland ‘02) has covered Maryland football and other local college sports for several outlets over the last 20 years.