For most students, summer means laziness, high junk food intake, low productivity and general inactivity.  For Katherine Perry and Robert “Big Rob” Crisp, senior athletic phenoms, summer were quite the opposite.

            For Perry, summer meant golf.  Lots of golf.

            “I started [playing golf] when I was 7,” said Perry, “but I realized golf was my passion when I was 10.  I went to the driving range and had a blast.”

            Perry practices seven days a week, somehow finding spare time to hang out with family and friends.  But this practice is not for naught.  Perry qualified for the 2009 United States Women’s Open Golf Championship (the US Women’s Open) in July after winning a medal at the Sanford, NC qualifier.

            At the Open, held at Saucon Valley Country Club in Bethlehem, PA, Perry shot a first round 78, only seven strokes off the eventual winner Eun Hee Ji’s 71.  However, after a second round 84, Perry missed the cut.  She was happy with the entire experience, though.

            “[It was] amazing,” said Perry.  “I met Juli Inkster (her idol), Lorena Ochoa, and more.”

            The missed cut has not dashed Perry’s dreams, however.  Perry is willing to put up the work necessary to become a professional golfer, “absolutely, without a doubt.”  In ten years, Perry sees herself, “hopefully on [the LPGA] tour and married.”

            “To be a professional golfer, it requires total devotion.  It’s very hard.  Those girls are amazing,” said Perry.

                        Like many other students at Athens, Robert Crisp would rather be somewhere else.  That somewhere else, however, is North Carolina State University’s (NC State) Carter-Finley Stadium.

            The 6’ 8”, 300 pound Crisp is committed to NC State for the upcoming 2010-2011 academic year.  Despite offers from the likes of the University of Miami (FL), the University of Tennessee, the University of Michigan, and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Crisp committed to NC State on April 7, 2009.

            Crisp, who came to Athens from Chapel Hill High School by way of Hillsborough’s Cedar Ridge High School, enrolled at Athens for the block scheduling.  Thanks to block scheduling, Crisp can graduate in January 2010.  Crisp’s brother, Peter Singer, also enrolled at Athens and will play for the NC State football team with Crisp.

            Though both Perry and Crisp are optimistic about their athletic futures, they also know just how difficult it is to be a professional athlete, a profession that employs few and pays well to even fewer.  They also know just how fast a career can be ended.  The specters of gambling, drugs and partying are always looming, ready to kill a promising young career.  This does not stop Perry from playing the odds once in a while, though.

            “It’s illegal,” said Perry.  “Well, maybe a candy bar,” she admits.