LEXINGTON - Baseball player Kelly Sweppenhiser's days start early and end late. Like many Division I athletes, he struggles to juggle academics with hours of practice, travel and games.

But Sweppenhiser's college choice makes his challenge greater than players on most of the opposing teams.

He goes to VMI.

That means Sweppenhiser rises at 6:30 a.m. on weekdays so he can report to 7 a.m. formation. He lives in barracks that lack air conditioning, televisions and mini-fridges, common amenities in most dorms. He marches to the dining hall for his meals. Most nights it's time to study, not go to a bar. "The extracurricular college lifestyle ... is nonexistent here. We don't go out at night. We don't watch TV and lounge around on our couches," said Sweppenhiser, a junior third baseman.

His reward: Getting to play for a baseball team that hasn't had a winning season since 1965.

Baseball isn't the only sport struggling to win at VMI. The football team, which hasn't had a winning season since 1981, finished 0-11 last fall. The basketball team didn't qualify for the Big South tournament this year, and has had only three winning seasons in the last 27 years.

Attracting good athletes to VMI is tough. The school hoped a conference change two years ago - from the Southern to the Big South - would help it achieve athletic success, but obstacles to winning remain for the school's teams.

"It's a structured environment and some kids aren't looking for that," football coach Cal McCombs said. "It's an environment where they all dress alike and some kids pride themselves on being a style guy. It's a demanding academic school. ... You've got to find the right kid for this school and be able to nurture them and develop them."

'Scrambling for time'

VMI students must first withstand the emotional and physical rigors of their freshman year. During the months of the rat line, which ends each February, freshmen have to do chores for seniors, get yelled at by seniors, and respond to the whims of seniors. There are "sweat party" workout sessions that cause some rats to pass out. Rats can't even sit back in their chairs at breakfast. The fallout from the rat line includes stress and fatigue, and the time demands are great.

"No one can even imagine what you're actually really going through," freshman wrestler Tommy Cunningham said.

Older students also have busy days.

VMI sophomore cornerback Jamaal Walton shares a room with four other students. After rising at 6:30 a.m. each day, he rolls up his bed and puts the bed "rack" up against a wall to create more room. He showers at night instead of in the morning because of early formation. He has to make sure his room is in order in case there is a room inspection. He has two or three classes a day. He has to report for midday formation, which might include rifle inspection.

And last fall, there was practice.

"When I talk to my friends [at other schools], they're kind of amazed," he said. "No one expects a football player or a baseball player to worry about shining their shoes all the time or worry about cleaning a rifle and then going over to the football field."

The demands on VMI's athletes prompt some coaches to plead with the administration to give them more time with their charges.

Two years ago, McCombs got VMI to allow his players to skip midday formation three days a week during the season so they could watch film of the opposing team for 20 minutes instead. This year, he got VMI to allow his players to skip Friday morning formation so they could get in a third weekly session of offseason weight lifting.

"At every military school you get to a point where you're always scrambling for time because there's so many different venues that these kids are involved in," said McCombs, a former Citadel player and assistant and an ex-Air Force assistant.

Former VMI assistant basketball coach Kirby Dean said coaches have to watch how hard they push players.

"They're going through a lot more than a kid at James Madison's going through with their regular day, so when they get to you ... you've got to watch yourself so you don't just completely break them down to where they have nothing left to give," said Dean, now the coach at Eastern Mennonite University.

That's why unlike most football coaches, McCombs doesn't always keep his players on the practice field for two hours or more.

"If you do that with all the demands you have here, the kids get worn down - and you can see it as the season goes along," McCombs said.

Cunningham, who rose at 6 a.m. and had four or five classes before practice this season, sometimes dreaded going to wrestling practice because he was already so tired and mentally drained.

"It's a bear sometimes," he said.

Lewis Preston, a basketball player at VMI from 1989-93, wishes the administration would make students' lives more tolerable.

"You've got to address certain things in regards to the student-athlete," said Preston, now a Notre Dame assistant. "There's some time commitments that can be addressed in a positive way. They can be more conducive to the student-athlete."

Former Keydet Club president Ralph Costen Jr., a 1970 VMI graduate, would also like to see changes.

"We've got to look at barracks life, marching," he said. "Maybe things don't need to be quite as difficult in today's world as it was when I was there. ... They've got to make [VMI] life accommodate the social requirements of today's kids."

However, J.H. Binford Peay III, who has been VMI's superintendent since 2003, has a different slant on the subject.

"Sometimes the way we view things is that VMI perhaps is a detriment to good performance in the athletic field, but I feel exactly the opposite," Peay said. "I think you need to take advantage of what VMI brings in terms of discipline, in terms of structure, in terms of attention to detail. When coaches use that, I think it facilitates winning."

Getting athletes, keeping athletes

The military side of VMI has always scared off a lot of potential recruits.

It's even harder because of the Iraq war, said John Trudgeon, who has been VMI's wrestling coach for 20 years. Unlike students at the U.S. military academies, VMI students aren't required to serve in the military after graduation. But Trudgeon said a lot of recruits don't know that.

And even after luring athletes to VMI, coaches often have to woo them again to keep them from transferring.

"In most places they recruit the kids once, but at VMI ... sometimes you spend as much time re-recruiting the kids that are already in the program as you do recruiting the kids that are high school seniors and juniors," Dean said. "It really divides your attention."

The problem with player retention can be seen in VMI's graduation rates. Only 54 percent of the freshman scholarship athletes who entered VMI in 1997 graduated within six years, compared to 62 percent of athletes nationally and 68 percent of all VMI freshmen entering in 1997.

VMI students do face challenges in the classroom. The wrestling team - the only VMI squad still in the Southern Conference - shared the SoCon regular-season title three times in the 1990s but finished last in the league tournament this year. Trudgeon said the problem this season was that two freshmen were academically ineligible for the spring semester. They fell victim to a new NCAA rule that requires athletes to pass a certain number of credits in one semester to be eligible the following semester.

"Academics are more demanding here than they are at other institutions," Trudgeon said.

Financial woes

With only 1,300 students, VMI is the third-smallest school in Division I and the second-smallest school in Division I-AA football. That doesn't give VMI a big pot of student fees to help fund the athletic budget, nor does it give the school a large alumni base to hit up for donations.

"It's going to be difficult to increase greatly our budgets," athletic director Donny White said.

"Could we be more successful if our budget was larger? I don't think there's any doubt," Trudgeon said.

VMI's basketball recruiting budget for this school year is $24,000. By comparison, Big South rival Radford has a $50,000 basketball recruiting budget and Big South champ Winthrop has a $30,000 budget.

Basketball is the only VMI team that has the NCAA maximum number of scholarships. VMI no longer gives out lacrosse and swimming scholarships; rifle also is a nonscholarship team. Tennis and golf were dropped as varsity sports three years ago.

Tuition for out-of-state students is $27,190, up from $20,030 five years ago and twice as much as it costs for Virginia residents. That's why McCombs gives most of his scholarships to in-state players, White said. Football is hardly the only sport affected.

"Your scholarship dollars don't go as far" as they used to, said Mike Bozeman, who has steered VMI's track and field and cross country program for 20 years. "It's much more difficult to get the good kid to come and walk on, unless they're really looking for this type of education, because of the cost."

Bozeman's program now boasts Paulvince Obuon, who was an All-American sprinter in 2004, and Garrett Brinkner, who was named the outstanding field performer of this year's Big South indoor and outdoor championships. But Bozeman entered last month's Big South outdoor meet knowing he had no shot at the men's team title.

"Our [team's] biggest weakness is depth due to the size of the student body and the continuing rise in the cost of tuition," Bozeman said.

VMI's facilities aren't great, either. But the school will be upgrading some of them thanks to an $8 million donation from graduate P. Wesley Foster Jr.

For the 2006 football season, 43-year-old Alumni Memorial Field will gain a home locker room, a renovated visitors' locker room, some chair-back seats and more concession areas and bathrooms. Clarkson-McKenna Hall adjacent to the stadium will have an expanded locker room and trainer's room and a new weight room. The baseball field will gain lights, a press box, bathrooms, a concessions area, more seats and new dugouts.

But it could take an extreme makeover to make VMI a winner in athletics.

"You're going to be challenged every single day, and you have to look forward to those challenges because if you don't, I think it can wear you down ... as a player, as a coach, as an administrator," Preston said.

Sweppenhiser, the leading hitter on the baseball team, is glad he chose VMI despite those challenges.

"The formations and the extra time [demands] is what makes this place special," said Sweppenhiser, who in 2003 became the first VMI baseball player to make the Louisville Slugger Freshman All-America team. "We're not only becoming better players and athletes, but we're becoming better people. ... When I do enter the work force, I think I'll be more competitive than the typical college graduate."

Recent highlights

Football: The 2002 team goes 6-6, snapping a string of 20 straight losing seasons. VMI wins three Southern Conference games, its most since 1995, and beats a ranked foe (Wofford) for the first time since 1995.

Men's soccer: Thanks in part to victories over four non-Division I foes, the 2004 team goes 10-9-1 to record its first winning season since 1990 and set the program record for wins.

Basketball: Jason Conley leads Division I in scoring for the 2001-02 season.

Wrestling: wins the state championship meet for the first time in January 2004.

Track and field: At the 2004 NCAA indoor meet, Paulvince Obuon becomes VMI's first track All-American in 20 years.

Baseball: The 2003 team goes 24-28, 16-14 in the SoCon - the most overall and SoCon wins in VMI history. Three players are chosen in the June 2003 major-league amateur draft, the first time that many Keydets are drafted in the same year.

Lacrosse: beat Washington and Lee this year for the first time since 1988.

Rough year

How VMI has fared in the 2004-05 school year:

Football: 0-11, 0-4 Big South

Men's soccer: 10-9-1, 2-4-1 Big South; lost in Big South quarterfinals

Women's soccer: 0-16, 0-8 Big South

Men's cross country: 4th at Big South meet

Basketball: 9-18, 3-13 Big South; didn't make Big South tournament

Wrestling: 6-6-1, 2-3 SoCon; last at SoCon meet

Rifle: 4-3; 5th at Mid-Atlantic Conference meet

Men's indoor track and field: 2nd at Big South meet

Women's indoor track and field: 7th at Big South meet

Swimming: 3-5; 2nd at Northeast Conference meet

Baseball: 20-22, 5-10 Big South entering Saturday

Lacrosse: 6-7, 3-4 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference entering Saturday

Men's outdoor track and field: 3rd at Big South meet

Women's outdoor track and field: 7th at Big South meet

Major woes

How VMI has fared in football and basketball since the beginning of the 1980-81 school year:

Football

Season Record Coach

1980: 3-7-1 (Bob Thalman)

1981: 6-3-1 (Thalman)

1982: 5-6 (Thalman)

1983: 2-9 (Thalman)

1984: 1-9 (Thalman)

1985: 3-7-1 (Eddie Williamson)

1986: 1-10 (Williamson)

1987: 4-7 (Williamson)

1988: 2-9 (Williamson)

1989: 2-8-1 (Jim Shuck)

1990: 4-7 (Shuck)

1991: 4-7 (Shuck)

1992: 3-8 (Shuck)

1993: 1-10 (Shuck)

1994: 1-10 (Bill Stewart)

1995: 4-7 (Stewart)

1996: 3-8 (Stewart)

1997: 0-11 (Ted Cain)

1998: 1-10 (Cain/Donny White)

1999: 1-10 (Cal McCombs)

2000: 2-9 (McCombs)

2001: 1-10 (McCombs)

2002: 6-6 (McCombs)

2003: 6-6 (McCombs)

2004: 0-11 (McCombs)

Basketball

Season Record Coach

1980-81: 4-23 (Charlie Schmaus)

1981-82: 1-25 (Schmaus)

1982-83: 2-25 (Marty Fletcher)

1983-84: 8-19 (Fletcher)

1984-85: 16-14 (Fletcher)

1985-86: 11-17 (Fletcher)

1985-87: 11-17 (Joe Cantafio)

1987-88: 13-17 (Cantafio)

1988-89: 11-17 (Cantafio)

1989-90: 14-15 (Cantafio)

1990-91: 10-18 (Cantafio)

1991-92: 10-18 (Cantafio)

1992-93: 5-22 (Cantafio)

1993-94: 5-23 (Cantafio)

1994-95: 10-17 (Bart Bellairs)

1995-96: 18-10 (Bellairs)

1996-97: 12-16 (Bellairs)

1997-98: 14-13 (Bellairs)

1998-99: 12-15 (Bellairs)

1999-2000: 6-23 (Bellairs)

2000-01: 9-19 (Bellairs)

2001-02: 10-18 (Bellairs)

2002-03: 10-20 (Bellairs)

2003-04: 6-22 (Bellairs)

2004-05: 9-18 (Bellairs)