Mind over matter

There’s an irony that isn’t lost on Daniel Etoroma.

At Durham’s Mt. Zion Christian Academy, Etoroma struggled to get through high school chemistry. At UNCW, he practically lives in a laboratory.

When he transferred from Lewis & Clark Community College in Illinois, Etoroma wanted to take on a major that would allow him to help people. Somehow, he ended up speaking with professors in the chemistry department who talked about work in pharmaceuticals. He was immediately hooked.

“I wanted to create something that would help people health wise,” Etoroma said. “That really fascinated me because you’re creating something. That’s like the front lines of creating something to help people. When I heard that, I chose chemistry.”

He knew the course load would be heavy. The last two years have been a test of how much weight he can carry.

In 34 years at the University, Dr. Bart Jones can recall only one other men’s basketball player majoring in chemistry, and that player pursued the Bachelor’s of Arts in Chemistry tract. Etoroma’s quest for a Bachelor’s of Science degree has a vastly higher course load, including more 400-level classes, an extra semester of calculus and advanced lab work. Because he was a junior college transfer, Etoroma has essentially been forced to squeeze three years of college into a two-year span while choosing to walk on with the basketball team.

“He was taking summer school loads that were brutal. He took organic chemistry and calculus, plus another class or two, last summer, while he was also doing workouts and stuff at school,” Jones said, noting that the B.S. in Chemistry might be the hardest undergrad program at the school. “He’s really tightly focused, highly focused. He’s juggling labs, very rigorous course work, a lot of travel, and a lot of practice time, gym time.”

Hurricane Florence decimated UNCW’s Dobo Hall, the facility where labs took place for the school’s science majors. Instead of practical lab work, much of the study last semester was theoretical. The building wasn’t usable, but the demands were not lessened.

“It’s been very weird. I’ve talked to so many of my professors because they’re just so confused on how to do things because it’s like they can’t tell you, ‘Oh, you did this lab so you should know this.’ You kind of didn’t do it and they have to explain it in a way that you can write a lab report on it,” Etoroma said with a laugh.

Finding that balance of student and athlete is something coach C.B. McGrath appreciates. At Kansas, McGrath was a human biology major who needed a plethora of lab work and high-level classes to graduate.

He’s come to know Etoroma’s schedule well – studying and classes in the morning, practice in the afternoon and more studying in the evening, with little wiggle room in between. On road trips, Etoroma is guaranteed to have a pile of notes and books. While his teammates doze off on the bus, he’s feverishly turning pages. If he has to miss practice for lab work, it’s not an issue. After all, it’s student-athlete, not the other way around.

“They’re equally important to him. He does the work. He spends the time that he has to academically to be successful because he knows that’s in the end where it’s going to be,” McGrath said. “It’s refreshing. And our guys see it too. They know that Daniel’s studying and they know it’s important to him.”

Once he graduates in May, Etoroma plans to take the GRE and enroll in grad school, hopefully at UNCW.

As he thinks about it, the irony returns. Graduate school will likely be easier than undergrad because he won’t have to balance school and athletics. Yet through it all, including a lot of lost sleep, Etoroma has kept a positive attitude.

With an end in sight, it begs the question – does he have senioritis yet?

“We’re not going to call it that. I’m just a little tired,” he said with a smile.

Reporter Alex Riley can be reached at 910-343-2034 or Alex.Riley@StarNewsOnline.com.