The end of an era: graduating leaves student athletes facing identity crisis

By: Jessyka Maliksi  

BELLEVILLE – Five…Four…Three…Two…One… 

A mix of emotions flood Nikki Ylagan’s mind as the final buzzer goes off during her last post-secondary game.  

Her last game was at the 2022 nationals with Humber College’s women’s basketball team.  

“We lost every single game. But I remember playing, and I looked up at the score clock, and I was like ‘There’s 30 seconds left’,” she said. 

Realizing that this would be the last time she would be able to play a basketball game in this environment, she said “I literally thought I was about to cry.”  

Basketball has been a big part of her life for as long as she can remember.  

She says graduating post-secondary and having to move on from that part of her basketball career has been hard.  

“I went through an identity crisis and honestly, I probably still am. I don’t think it ever goes away,” she said.  

And she’s not alone. 

Yssa Sto. Domingo and Ahmad Ismail are in the same boat. 

Sto. Domingo is a retired student-athlete from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

She played in their basketball program for five years and found it hard to leave behind the sport she loves. Especially when she’s been surrounded by it since birth. 

Ismail is a second-year basketball player at Loyalist College graduating this semester. 

Just like Ylagan and Sto. Domingo, in their earlier years, he is faced to make a decision.

With three years of eligibility left, his thought process after graduating is whether he wants to go back to school and continue his basketball career or leave it behind. 

Maggie Bigelow is the author of an article on Slate entitled “What Do You Do When You’re Done Being an Athlete?“.  Bigelow is a retired Division I college athlete. 

In her article, she explains the struggles ex-athletes go through after retiring from their sport, especially when it’s been played at a high level. 

Bigelow says many athletes who continue their sport careers in college have worked hard since they were young to get recruited. That makes retiring from their sport that much harder. 

According to a scholarly article Bigelow refers to in her article, it’s common for retired college athletes to struggle with weight gain and depression. 

Most student-athletes don’t know what to do after graduating, especially when playing their sport and attending school has been all they know from such a young age.  

Which makes the “what’s next” thought process after graduating harder to face.

It can lead to an identity crisis.

Ylagan told QNet News that during her fourth year at Lakehead University she was considering finishing up her program, leaving her basketball career behind and entering the real world of working full-time.  

She said it was halfway through her senior year where she decided she wasn’t ready to give up basketball and wanted to go back to school, but not to Lakehead.  

She wanted to be closer to home.  

She then continued her studies and basketball career at Humber College.  

“I think that’s where my mindset was after graduating. I was like ‘Okay, I’m going to do it. So, I get to still play basketball, but not have it be my whole entire life like I did for the last four years.”, she said.  

With this new mindset of being able to play basketball and have fun while doing it, Ylagan finished up her basketball career winning a provincial championship and an opportunity to compete in British Columbia for nationals.  

When basketball season ended for Ylagan, she had the opportunity to do a placement with a professional basketball league called the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL).  

She was still thinking of playing professionally, but then she got an opportunity to do some coaching.

Bobbling between decisions on whether she wanted to continue her basketball career at a high level, she decided to take the coaching position because she understands how hard it is to get a contract overseas.  

“I just want some sort of stability,” she said.  

After two seasons with the CEBL, Ylagan coached Humber’s junior varsity basketball team and became an assistant coach at Hoop Queens, the first women’s basketball professional league in Canada.  She’s also an assistant coach for women’s basketball at the University of Toronto and the head coach at Kings Heights Academy, a preparatory school based out of Vaughan.

“I think I can be around basketball competitively on a coaching standpoint rather than playing,” Ylagan said, “I don’t think I’m going to be playing anymore, but I think I can still impact the game and be a part of the game in a different position now.”  

NCAA Division III student-athlete, Sto. Domingo is in the same boat.  

Sto. Domingo completed five years of post-secondary basketball at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.  

Just like Ylagan, she learned how to play basketball at a very young age because of her brother and father being heavily involved in the game.  

After finishing her fourth year as National finalist and graduating in 2022, she wasn’t ready to give up the game of basketball at a high level just yet. So, she decided to continue her studies at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.  

“I decided to take another year, and it was probably one of the best decisions I’ve ever made,” she said.  

In her final game, she remembers “feeling all of the emotions”.  

With one of their best players out, halfway through the fourth quarter, Sto. Domingo knew this was going to be her last game playing at this level.  

She wanted to spend her last few moments on the bench alongside her teammates and coaches, so with two minutes left in her final game, she fouled out.  

With the season ending, Sto. Domingo was offered a once in a lifetime opportunity after graduation to work as a Sports and Event Coordinator for the Milwaukee Bucks. 

This job would help keep her in the sports industry after graduation. But she turned it down due to it being far away from her home in Illinois. 

So, what was next for Sto. Domingo?  

She wanted to be around the sports environment still, all while balancing a 9-5 job, which sounds like a dream for the average student-athlete after graduating.  

She now works 9-5 at NIR Roof Care as an Assistant Vice President for Marketing.  

Although she works at a roofing company, basketball is still in her DNA, and she can’t see herself completely leaving the sport behind. 

Sto. Domingo tries to find local pick-up games to keep playing the sport she loves.  

This is her first time in years that she’s been able to live a normal life, without all the student-athlete commitments. She told QNet News her next goal is just to stay present. Staying in the moment is complicated for student-athletes to do, she said. So, with her high-level basketball career coming to an end she wants to focus on reflecting.  

“Being able to slow down is really weird,” she said.  

She said this is the first time in a while that her whole family has been under the same roof. So, she’s just trying to slow down and enjoy the moments with them that she lost while being away at college. 

Second-year Loyalist College men’s basketball student-athlete Ahmad Ismail is following in Ylagan and Sto. Domingo’s steps.  

He graduates from the college’s Business-Accounting program in April.  

Like the others, he isn’t ready to give up the sport he’s been playing ever since he was young.  

Ismail told QNet News he hasn’t decided on what his next steps are after graduating. 

Since his final game as a Lancer, he’s been thinking about what comes next. 

His hopes for next year is to continue his schooling and basketball career at the USports level. 

“That’s where I feel like I would be able to find the actual career that I want to pursue,” he said, “If I can’t get into university now, then I’ll probably take a year or two off and just work.” 

Just like the others, Ismail was introduced to basketball at a young age because of his brothers.

Since it’s been such a big part of his life ever since he was younger, he said he’s trying to take it as far as he can. 

“Once I feel like I’ve reached the furthest point, I can be content with not playing basketball anymore…or not playing it seriously” he said.  

He said he believes there’s always a way to keep reaching the next level, it just comes with hard work ethic. 

Bigelow’s article sums up every retired student-athletes struggle. 

“College lacrosse was a huge part of my identity. Then, suddenly, it was gone,” she said in her article’s subheading. 

Which is exactly how Ylagan described her first thoughts after graduating and entering the real world. 

According to Bigelow, retired athletes miss competition the most out of their respective sport. She says one of the simplest ways to deal with “post-college athlete blues” is to join recreational leagues. 

This is exactly what Sto. Domingo and Ylagan do to combat their miss for playing the sport they love. 

Although most athletes have an identity crisis and miss playing their sport after graduating, some are the opposite.

There are retired college athletes that don’t want anything to do with the sport that consumed majority of their life. They are ready to move on from it and forget about it. 

There are so many options on how to deal with sport retirement after graduating college. 

Meaning, there’s always going to be a “what’s next?’.