Lehigh football seniors balance internships with summer training

Before his coworkers on Capitol Hill start their day, senior defensive back DJ Brown is already awake and working out. 

At 5:30 a.m., Brown would get up before his summer internship, working with a congressman, and check the app his conditioning coaches created to help him stay on track. 

While many people struggle to balance summer internships with their personal lives, Lehigh football players must balance their professional goals with the demands of Division I football. 

Brown said he’s thankful that Lehigh allows them to briefly step away from the field and pursue their career goals. 

“We are one of the only high-level schools that allow their players to go do an internship during the summer,” Brown said. “A lot of schools don’t even allow that, so that’s one of the things that got me here.” 

For players who choose to take a summer internship, it means taking time away from the field and their team during preseason. They’re still expected to maintain their physical strength and conditioning while they’re away so they can return for the upcoming season, ready to play. 

Working with the coaching staff, each player has a personal training schedule depending on their position. This year, they used an app, Bridge Athletic, to help players check in and ensure they’re staying on top of workouts. 

”As long as they are taking care of business (training), we are good with that,” Rooney said.

The decision to stay on campus or take an internship is up to each player. 

Austin Huff, a senior offensive lineman, spent eight weeks at Matthews Investment, a commercial real estate company in Nashville, while continuing to keep in shape and meet the training demands for the upcoming season. 

“When I was getting in at 5 a.m. and not leaving until 7 a.m., I would set an alarm for 4 a.m., go on a run, and after work make sure I go to the gym, and do the same thing over and over again,” Huff said.

Despite having to balance these two demands this summer, Huff said the opportunity gave him valuable experience to pursue his future career goals in commercial real estate. 

“It was definitely a good stepping stone in the direction I want to go,” Huff said. “It was worth not being here this summer and having to step away to do the internship.”

Rooney said that while it’s important to make the players the best athletes they can be on the field, it’s equally as important to prepare them for who they will be after graduation, when their football careers end. 

For players like Huff and Brown, sacrificing time with their team this summer may have been a hard decision, but it allowed them to further their career goals. 

“As much as we want to win games and make people at Lehigh proud,” Rooney said. “It is at the individual level of making them the best people they can be outside of the football field, as well as making them the best player possible on the field.”