Life as a Student-Athlete and ROTC Cadet

Like most student-athletes, the day starts earlier than most for Megan Ombres and Santos Flores.

Unlike most student-athletes, though, their day doesn’t start with athletics. It sometimes starts with military training.

Ombres, a senior from Leander, Texas, and Flores, a freshman from San Antonio, are on the Texas State track and field team as distance runners. In the fall, they run cross country for the Bobcats.

Year-round, they are members of the Texas State University Army ROTC. 

Bobcat runners and Bobcat cadets, they are the only two current Texas State student-athletes in the ROTC program. While they are competing for championships at the NCAA level, they are also being trained for the military after they graduate. They chose this uncommon route because they want to pursue a life of service.

“I was in high school and towards the end of my senior year, and I didn’t really know what I wanted to do,” said Ombres. “And I didn’t know if I was going to be running (in college) yet. But I knew I wanted to stay active. I’m also just really bad at sitting idle.”

She had a conversation with her AVID teacher in high school, and she told her about ROTC. A few months later, she was at Texas State and a member of the ROTC program.

“I got here my freshman year, and I just really loved the environment,” said Ombres. “It is really structured, like the Army is going to tell me what I’m going to do with my life so I don’t have to question it.”

For Flores, the decision was simple. He got a track scholarship, which limited him from enlisting into the Army right out of high school, but his influences kept him on the track of service.

“I come from a military family,” said Flores. “My dad was in the Army and so were two of his brothers. They lived a disciplined life, and I kind of like that.”

The days of student-athlete/ROTC cadets are busy. For Ombres, this means waking up before 6 am and doing PT from 6 to 7 am on Tuesdays through Thursdays. Depending on if she has track/cross country practice in the morning, she could go straight from PT to practice that starts at 7 or 7:30 am. Then every Tuesday and Thursday, she has a military science class that starts at 9:30 am, which creates another logjam in her athlete schedule as she goes straight from practice to class.

For Flores, a freshman, the day starts at the same time as Ombres and with a workout. He has class in the middle of the day, which then leaves his afternoon for track practice. 

Both have ROTC labs on Thursday afternoons, though, which is at Freeman Ranch and where the ROTC cadets put their learnings from the classroom into practical application.

“We go out there and run through offensive and defensive operations, like raids and ambushes,” said Ombres. “Now, as a senior, what I’m doing – instead of being someone on the ground for those parts – we’re teaching the younger classmen (like Flores) and planning it for them.”

Inevitably, there are schedule conflicts for the two. Sometimes a meet may run against a lab, and they are forced to miss one of them. They have to choose which one is more important for that week.

“We were planning on being at the UT meet (this week), which is part of the reason they didn’t put me at the Baylor meet (last weekend),” said Ombres. “And I had checked my schedule. We’re planning this military ball this Friday, and the meet used to have the distance events on Saturday. But they moved it back to Friday, so that got in the way of the military ball. Sometimes things get moved around and I miss something. Or we just had our (cadet field training) last week, and on a day like that, that is what I’m doing for the workout because that’s a lengthy test. I have to think about how that plays into me possibly racing in a few days.”

In that case, Ombres ran a personal-best in the 3000 meter steeplechase at the Tom Jones Memorial in Florida (11:06.04) in mid-April. It was not the typical training leading into a race, but it played out in her favor.

Meanwhile for Flores, he is navigating the first-year experience of a college student in addition to being in ROTC and on the track team, where he runs the 800 meters.

“It’s pretty hard because ROTC is a lot like athletics,” said Flores. “You have to put as much time as you do in track as you do in ROTC. I missed a meet (earlier this year) to go to a three-day field training. Plus, the volunteering for ROTC and having to go to study hall for track. I have to pick either one (at times) to make sure I’m still doing them.”

Ombres and Flores know both the coaches of the track team and ROTC are understanding of their situations and allow them to make choices that balance both. In the instances where Ombres has to choose ROTC over a meet, she sees a side benefit.

“If I have to miss a meet, we use that as an opportunity to train harder so I can keep moving through,” said Ombres.

And while there are challenges to balancing both, Ombres and Flores can see how ROTC helps them in running and vice versa. 

“Learning how to be disciplined and moving with urgency,” said Flores on how ROTC helps him be an athlete. “There are no making mistakes in the Army because if you mess up, it’s life or death. I keep that same mentality of doing everything to a “T” every single time (when I’m running). It helps a lot.”

Ombres finds herself reflecting on specific instances in ROTC that help her push through in running.

“I did a Ranger Challenge a few years ago, which is where you go out for a weekend and do ridiculously challenging things,” said Ombres. “Nothing will be worse than doing a four-mile supply ruck where we went through a water-crossing obstacle and crawled through the sand with our rucksacks. So, during a race sometimes, it’s not that bad because I’ve done worse things.”

As for being an athlete helping them in ROTC, they both benefit from the physical training that running provides them during combat fitness tests and other physical challenges.

“In track, you hurt a lot when you’re running,” said Flores. “So, pushing past that threshold helps a lot when you’re doing ROTC challenges.”

Flores is only starting his journey as a dual athlete and ROTC cadet. Ombres is at the end. She graduates this May, and in September, she will begin an eight-year commitment in the Army. She will go to Fort Huachuca in Arizona to take part in a basic officer leadership course and learn how to be a 35 Alpha, which is an all-source intelligence officer. The typical path for her will be moving from second lieutenant for two years, then first lieutenant for two years, and then captain for four years. Beyond that, she is ready to see where it all takes her.

“The Army can be a really good stepping stone,” said Ombres. “I think I want to go pretty far with it, possibly do 20 years. You can also get a lot of certifications through the Army. Military intelligence requires top secret clearance and so if I get that, I can use that on the civilian side afterwards.

“The next eight years, though, is all I know for sure,” said a laughing Ombres.

The journey for Ombres has not been a straight course. When she got to Texas State as a freshman, her times in cross country were not fast enough to make the team. She was in ROTC, however, and she still kept up with running by totaling around 15 miles a week (which is far less than a college cross country runner). 

But in her junior year, spots opened up on Texas State’s cross country team and in distance events on the track team. Now she is the leading distance runner on the women’s side, which is tremendous growth from where she was at when she first arrived in San Marcos.

“When I finished high school, and not racing for two years, I didn’t think I was going to hit PRs ever again,” said Ombres. “But I think it’s through ROTC that I have a lot more confidence than I had coming into college. In ROTC, you have to brief lieutenant colonels and you’re talking to these people that have insane rank over you, and you have to learn how to do that. And if you mess up, you’re going to get called out on that. You have to learn how to take that and grow from that. It has given me confidence to push through that wall.”

And the choice to be both a student-athlete and ROTC cadet was a simple one for Ombres. It may not be easy times – compared to the life of a typical college student – but she always knew this was what she was made to do.

“I knew I wanted to be of effect somewhere,” said Ombres. “I knew I wanted to do something that was of greater impact. I just didn’t know how to do that. But I’ve found it with ROTC.”