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Two campus couples reflect for Valentine’s DayFeature
Nicole Painter and Brandon Armstrong (right), and Courtney Stodola and Austin Simmons (left) are two student couples that started their relationships at USD. Submitted Photo | The Volante
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Two campus couples reflect for Valentine’s Day

February 12th, 2019 Molly Sperlich Feature, Verve comments

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Love is in the air this Valentine’s Day as two student couples reflect on their relationships.

Courtney Stodola and Austin Simmons

Austin Simmons and Courtney Stodola are both redshirt juniors; they are majoring in physical education and business administration, respectively.

Simmons plays for the USD football team, and Stodola is a soccer player. The couple have been dating for over two years and met at a party their freshman year.

They agreed that dating another athlete is nice, but it can sometimes be hard to find time to spend together.

Submitted Photo | The Volante

“Obviously as an athlete, you are busy with your sport all the time, so that can make it tough sometimes,” Simmons said.

However, they said it is nice to have someone who can relate to their busy schedule.

“We both get it,” Stodola said. “We both understand that we are going to be busy and we have stuff to do.”

Since they are frequently busy with class and practice, they try and spend time together at night.

“We normally just get the nights together, because we both have sports in the afternoon. So, we will just hang out and watch Netflix after dinner,” Stodola said.

Since they both work hard to excel as student-athletes, the two say it is fun to see each other accomplish their goals.

“I like seeing how much he wants it and how much extra time he puts into it,” Stodola said.

Stodola says even though it can be hard to find time together, dating an athlete is rewarding to see them succeed.

“Watching them succeed because we see how hard each other work,” Stodola said. “It is fun to go to games and see that hard work pay off.”

Simmons also appreciates his girlfriend’s strong work ethic.

“She’s a go-getter and she goes and works hard and doesn’t slack off,” Simmons said.

The couple also encourages each other to eat healthy and exercise.

“Over breaks when we go home we will work out together and I have learned a lot from Austin about eating healthy and how that helps with athletics,” Stodola said.

Nicole Painter and Brandon Armstrong

Submitted Photo | The Volante

Nicole Painter is a junior dental hygiene major with a business minor.  She has been dating Brandon Armstrong, a junior USD basketball player majoring in sport management with a minor in coaching, for a year and a half.

Painter said the couple met through mutual friends.

“I was friends with a lot of guys on the team and we started hanging out from that,” Painter said. “We just spent a lot of time together and starting hanging out and that’s when we kind of realized we liked each other.”

Painter said she is the furthest thing from an athlete and sometimes it is hard dating a student-athlete.

“During the season he is really busy,” Painter said. “He is always doing something between traveling or workouts.”

The couple enjoys traveling with each other and have visited Texas, Kansas City, Minneapolis and the Black Hills.

 

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Molly Sperlich

Molly Sperlich is a sophomore at the University of South Dakota double-majoring in Media & Journalism and English. She is the Sports Presentation Editor. Molly also works as the Digital Editor for Coyote News.

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People of the Pack

"I like a lot of music a lot of other people like, so if I’m just playing a lot of loud music to a crowd and getting paid for it, that sounds awesome."
"The nature here is amazing. The Vermillion River, the park, hanging out with my friends and I like cooking."
"I’ve had a couple uncles and a couple aunties come here. My grandmother attended USD in 1970. So they really inspired me and encouraged me to come to USD. They made it sound really awesome and it is an awesome school. I like USD."
"I’m most active with Alpha Phi. We have a lot of philanthropy events like we have our Red Dress Gala, which is just an event we hold every year to raise money for women’s heart health. I’m pretty involved with that, and we also do the Backpack Program where you pack lunches for kids in Clay County."
"After this year I will be doing my MBA after this. Hopefully I can get into a marketing firm and just work my way up. That’s what I’m hoping."
"I find it fun to go to the library in the student-athlete's section. It's nice because you can go there every night. I have been there every night this week just studying and stuff for my test tomorrow."
"USD really cares about its students. They just keep everything really nice here and it’s personal."
"I want to be a politician just for the simple fact of genuinely educating and helping people who don't understand certain policy issues. I want to help them see beyond the biased media so they can research on their own."
"I want to end up being a delivery nurse, anywhere honestly. That’s the end game. I want to travel a lot."
"I want to be a nurse somewhere, but I don’t really know what kind of area. I just want to help people and watch them achieve their goals and get better."
"I just love singing — singing’s my favorite thing to do. It’s always my escape for everything."
"I am going to become a counselor and try to create a safe and welcoming environment. I'll help them where they are, and try to get them where they want to be."
"I very much care for my family and try to take care of them in any way I can. Part of that when I lived in California was trying to take the stress off of my parents. I would do everything around the house: cooking, cleaning, yard work, taking out the trash, grocery shopping."
"I would travel anywhere, I don’t care. I just really like being in new places and meeting new people."
"I can deal with his (stuff), and he can deal with mine. We’ll be up until four in the morning."                         "We’re just social people, we like to talk and have a good time."
"I’ve definitely met people who are more free-spirited and not judgmental and more interested in the same things as I am. I studied abroad last summer in Ireland."
"(If I could go back) I would’ve stuck with basketball and played basketball in college. I just feel like I missed out on an opportunity. I still could’ve gotten a business degree while playing basketball. I just wish I would’ve worked harder at it. I played at first and then I quit. I signed at USF, University of Sioux Falls. I played summer ball with them, with their team, so I didn’t get to experience the full effect."
"I don’t think I’d change anything, because then if I changed something then something else wouldn’t have happened. Why change? My life is pretty good right now. Life is completely about perspective."
"My favorite artist is my band, Bread of Stone. We are growing up with Christian music and we have a lot of shows too. We already have a couple albums out."
"I was a sophomore in high school when my grandma Betty passed away, and it was two years before that when my grandpa Walter passed away. I don’t remember much of Betty because she had Alzheimer’s, so we would go see her once or twice a year in her home. I know that she liked to bake a lot. She would bake all kinds of things — cookies, pies, cakes. She was known for her little tea parties when we came over. The only thing I remember is her sitting in the back porch with my grandpa when we would go to visit them before they both moved to homes. I remember lots of my grandpa. He was a fiery, grumpy old man. He used to give us Sunkists and cookies every time we went to see him. We’d bring him meals when he still lived in his house, and later when he had moved, we would take him to church every Sunday and go for hour long drives that he loved and we all had to suffer through."

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