{"id":2654,"date":"2021-08-10T15:28:41","date_gmt":"2021-08-10T15:28:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/?p=2654"},"modified":"2021-08-10T15:28:41","modified_gmt":"2021-08-10T15:28:41","slug":"student-story-dominic-ball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/?p=2654","title":{"rendered":"Student Story: Dominic Ball"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>“Mum and dad trained as teachers, so I was always pushed in school. Even when football opportunities came, I was always pushed academically because the average length of a footballer\u2019s career is seven years.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been lucky enough to be in it for seven years now. Hopefully, I\u2019ll be able to play until I\u2019m 35, but most players have to work so I always thought I need to plan for my future.”<\/p>\n

After completing a BTEC in sport, Dominic\u2019s older brother encouraged him to undertake a degree with the university.<\/p>\n

“My brother had actually started his degree with the OU a couple of years before me. He said that the course was easy to understand and worked well around football.<\/p>\n

We travel a lot, sometimes twice a week for away games, but even in a hotel room you can do your work. I like the fact that I had the flexibility to get on and do my work on flights or at different clubs but keep up with my workload.<\/p>\n

My brother\u2019s degree was partly funded by the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA). They provide financial support to young players which is brilliant – it pushes players to do something in education. When it came time for me to do my degree, university fees had gone up but the PFA provided a bursary, which made it a lot more affordable as a young player.\u201d<\/p>\n

At first Dominic found the course challenging but found his feet in his final year and really excelled.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially, I didn\u2019t engage with my tutors or get involved in the student community, so I struggled for the first half of a six-year course. In one assignment I received 14 out 100 which made me think, I need to understand where I\u2019m going wrong.<\/p>\n

I started to engage with my tutors and other students, it made the experience more enjoyable. In my last year, I finally understood how to structure my essays and assignments \u2013 the penny dropped. I was averaging 70 per cent in my results.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Dominic didn\u2019t experience the traditional graduation ceremony as he completed his degree during lockdown, but it was still a special moment for him and his loved ones.<\/p>\n

\u201cI organised a small celebration at home. I hired a photographer to take photos of me in my robes. It was a special moment \u2013 my girlfriend, my dog, and my mum and dad were there to help me celebrate.<\/p>\n

All my hard work has paid off, which was a big moment for not only me but also for my parents. I would have loved to go to graduation, but we\u2019ve all missed out on something this year, and I was just pleased to get my degree.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now with a degree under his belt Dominic is hopeful for the future and plans to go into business after football.<\/p>\n

\u201cFootball is my passion \u2013 I still have dreams of playing in the Premiership. But with my degree, I hope that in time I can set up a business, maybe something to do with football, so that I have a career long after my days on the pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Mum and dad trained as teachers, so I was always pushed in school. Even when football opportunities came, I was always pushed academically because the average length of a footballer\u2019s career is seven years. I\u2019ve been lucky enough to be in it for seven years now. Hopefully, I\u2019ll be able to play until I\u2019m 35, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[149,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-teamousport","category-student-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2654"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2684,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2654\/revisions\/2684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}