Although the NCAA didn’t grant basketball player David Kummer a sixth year of competition due to medical hardships, Kummer remains in graduate school pursuing a degree in higher education and interning with Student-Athlete Support Services.
After eight months of waiting for a final decision from the NCAA, Kummer finally received a phone call in August.
“I think all of us involved were kind of expecting it,” Kummer said. “It was a long and drawn out process. Your hope kind of dwindles and fades after a while. It would have been nice to play this year, but the longer it went on, we realized it may not get granted.”
With three sidelining injuries in his five-year career, Kummer played a total of 60 games, which is only about two full seasons.
“It’s not how you picture your collegiate NCAA career playing out,” he said.
Kummer was limited to 95 minutes during his freshman campaign in 2004-2005 and missed the 2006-2007 season following knee surgeries.
In last January’s win over Univeristy of Alabama Little Rock, Kummer fractured his fibula in his right ankle and was unable to finish the season.
The NCAA allows each student no more than four seasons of competition and one “redshirt” for a student-athlete who does not participate in competition. Kummer did not fit into the specific rubric, leading him to appeal the initial decision so that the committee would take a closer look at the situation.
“We appealed their initial decision so they (the NCAA) would take a more subjective look at my case. They gave it a lot of consideration,” Kummer said. “But on their end there wasn’t a whole lot they could do without setting a rather new precedence that would kind of alter their whole process of how they look at medical hardships. We knew that going in as well.
“While we hoped that they would offer some consideration, there wasn’t a whole lot they could do on their end without causing the NCAA a lot more work then they probably need to do for each case. I was told it took months and months and months to get a final answer on an appeal and get feedback on that. It’s a long process, but I think it went all the way up to the president of the NCAA, Myles Brand, and his input was sought on it.”
But Kummer had prepared for the possibility that his final appeal would not be granted. He completed his undergraduate degree in 2007 and will graduate with his Masters degree in higher education this spring.
“Both my parents have been in education. They’re high school teachers. I thought about coaching at one point but that faded, and it related more to support services,” Kummer said. “It kind of grew on me. I’m trying to dabble a little bit with compliance, tie in my own experience and I’ll also be doing the radio for the men’s basketball games. I’ve had some good assistance myself with the people at DU who have helped me and kind of steered me in the right path, so paying that back in some respect.”
Within his internship, Kummer helps student-athletes with academic advising, transition programming, study table programming, NCAA compliance, tutoring and textbook distribution.
“I’m trying to get as rounded a view of athletics as I can and decide where I want to go after this year,” he said.
