Buffs Grads: Belk Took Advantage Of Opportunity In Medical Career Pursuit

BOULDER — When Wilson Belk enrolled at Colorado four years ago, he knew he wanted to play golf for the Buffaloes and he knew he wanted to someday be a doctor.

Belk did play golf for Roy Edwards' Buffaloes, enjoying a solid career on the links. He also started down the path of becoming a doctor, wrapping up his degree in integrative physiology this semester while also continuously prepping for the Medical College Admission Test.

But along the way, while balancing the rigors of being a Division I athlete with the pursuit of an intensely difficult degree, Belk also enjoyed the opportunity to build his resume´ with some dynamic extracurricular activities. That included three years of working with CU's Director of Sports Medicine and orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Eric McCarty, as well as internships that took him to Portugal, Ethiopia and Tanzania.

"It's been an amazing four years," Belk said recently. "I've been given some really cool opportunities in college. At the (CU Athletics) academic breakfast this year, I said, 'I literally owe everything to everyone here,' and I mean that. I've done amazing internships in great places and I've had tons of opportunities with Dr. McCarty. I literally wouldn't have been able to do any of those things without being part of the athletic department. It helped establish connections that opened all kinds of doors."

Belk's accomplishments on the golf course included two appearances in the Pac-12 championships, including a top-50 finish one year. He also played in the NCAA Regional for CU in 2016, and put his name in the Buffs record books with the fourth-best 72-hole score ever by a freshman at the 2016 conference championships.

But Belk also put his name into the books in another way at CU — as the lead author on a number of research papers that have already been published in medical journals.

"Some of the things he did are almost unheard of for an undergrad," McCarty said. "He spent time volunteering to do research, and he wrote papers where he was the first author listed. That's something you don't see until after you are done with your medical school training. We're talking about an undergraduate being the first author on papers that are being published in orthopedic and sports medicine journals. I didn't do that until I was five years out of college."

Belk admits that finding the balance between playing golf at the Division I level, pursuing his degree, and participating in as many extracurriculars as possible wasn't easy. It required some keen time management skills and a strong work ethic.

"You have to make a lot of sacrifices," Belk said. "You have to set your priorities so you can be successful in all the areas you're involved in. You have to be accountable, you have to be responsible, you have to be disciplined. That comes with the territory of being an athlete."

But, Belk also noted, being around high-achieving student-athletes on a daily basis also provided regular inspiration.

"There are people in this athletic department who are crazy — the things they do are literally amazing," Belk said with a laugh. "You see people every day with all kinds of really difficult majors and 4.0 GPAs — and national championships. You are in this zone of people who are doing things at a higher level than you could have really imagined. It's inspiring. There's support throughout the athletic department, people who know what you're going through and people who make you want to succeed."

Dr. McCarty — a former Colorado football player — said Belk took advantage of every possible opportunity. He observed surgeries, volunteered for research and absorbed as much as he could about the medical profession.

"When he shadowed he had a notebook and would take incredibly detailed notes and draw these elaborate pictures and diagrams of what we were doing in surgery," McCarty said. "He was just so impressive. He had great time management skills and was able to balance so much. For him to be a Division I athlete and then do volunteer work where he was getting research manuscripts published — and to do it on the side of his heavy-duty schoolwork for an integrative physiology degree — is incredible. Just very, very impressive."

Belk also wasn't afraid to use some "alternative" avenues when it came to studying.

A couple of years ago, CU's football coaches noticed that the whiteboards in their position meeting rooms were regularly covered with complicated math and chemistry equations every morning. The coaches finally began asking whether their meeting rooms were being used as classrooms in the evening without their knowledge.

It turns out that they weren't being used as classrooms — but as the perfect study environment for Belk. The rooms had vast amount of whiteboard space, no interruptions through the evening, and even the opportunity to "turn up some tunes."

"They finally asked me to at least erase the whiteboards when I was through every night," he said with a laugh.

With his degree in hand — he finished with a GPA above 3.7 — Belk will take the MCATs this summer. He plans to continue to work with Dr. McCarty for the next year, then head to med school in 2020.

In the long run, he someday hopes to do exactly what McCarty — also the head team physician for the Colorado Avalanche — does now.

"That's the ideal job," Belk said. "I would love to someday be doing exactly what he's doing. It's just going to be a lot of work to get there."

Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu