Story and Photo by Melanie Leach
So apparently Drake athletes date each other?
The Times-Delphic sat down with Matt Schimek and Kimmy Askelson to learn about their experiences dating while both compete in their respective seasons.
The Times-Delphic: What year in school are you?
Kimberly Askelson: Juniors.
Matthew Schimek: Yeah, we’re both juniors.
TD: Where are each of you live from?
MS: I am from Oswego, Illinois.
KA: And I’m from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which is two hours east of here.
TD: How far apart are those cities?
KA: Now my family lives in the Des Moines area, so we see my parents a lot.
MS: I am about five hours from Drake.
TD: What sports do you play at Drake?
KA: I was on the golf team for two-and-a-half years, and then I decided to do something else.
MS: I am on the track and field team.
TD: What events do you compete in, Matt?
MS: I pole vault.
TD: What are each of your majors?
KA: Marketing.
MS: I am a psychology major.
TD: Are you two involved in anything else on campus?
MS: I am in the ROTC here as well. It takes up the bulk of my time here on campus. I’m looking to do research with some of the professors next year and then (get) an internship before I graduate. It’s a necessity.
KA: I don’t really have any on-campus activities, but I do have an internship at RXNetworking.com. I also work out at a Crossfit gym.
(Although Kimmy is no longer a student-athlete at Drake, she continues to work out. She is now completing workouts every week for the Crossfit Open, which started the first week of March.)
TD: How did you two meet?
MS: Take it away!
KA: (Laughs) We got our room assignments sophomore year, and moved into GK (Goodwin-Kirk Hall) on the Kirk side. We ended up being next-door neighbors on the boys-and-girls floor. I knew one of his roommates through a group of friends. One night, we went over to knock on their door because we were bored, and we wanted to branch out and meet other people on our floor.
TD: Who asked whom out?
MS: I just assumed that it was implied.
KA: After talking for awhile, I had surgery, so I lived at home for a bit, when I came back to campus, I was wondering if we were dating or not. I finally asked because I am usually straightforward like that. So I asked him, and he said that it was implied.
TD: How long have you been dating?
KA: A year and four months today.
TD: When you were both doing sports, how did you two balance your time?
KA: We stayed up really late. It seemed like every week, I was up really late doing homework. Because when I used to travel with golf, we competed Monday and Tuesday, so I would get back late Tuesday night. We pulled a lot of all-nighters after golf meets. Also, both of us seemed to have busy times at the same time, so we were able to help each other stay awake.
MS: I had to be up every morning at 5:15 a.m. for ROTC, but I would still try to stay up late and get work done. I tried to keep her company.
TD: Was it harder to spend time together in season or out of season?
MS: It seems like she was always in season, because she had both fall and spring golf. Out of season, during Christmas break when I didn’t have any meets and she was off, it was a lot easier to spend time and relax.
The two find time to spend with each other during designated breaks. It generally consists of Kimmy going to Oswego for a few days.
MS: We do a lot of driving together. We don’t get along with music. She likes country now.
KA: Yeah. I’ve adapted.
As for their date plans, they call them adventures.
“We don’t plan them out. We just make them up as we go. Our game plan is no plan,” Askelson said. “We never make plans. We never have plans. It just works out better that way.”
Some of their best adventures consist of buying cheap concert tickets and sneaking their way down to the floor. They have gone to Kenny Chesney and Keith Urban. When asked if they wanted it printed, they said, “Yeah! It’s an accomplishment.”
