By Jenae Mims (@jenaemims_):
It was the summer of 2014 when two best friends lived in the same dorms, met and eventually fell in love.
Sounds like your dream college love story, right? Except for one obstacle. Both were already committed — to sports that is.
For Andre Chachere, it’s been a 14-year commitment to football and for Rachol West, it’s been 16 years with basketball.
“I remember meeting her when I was helping take up all her Gatorades to her room,” said Chachere.
Being student athletes gave them an instant bond. They were understanding of each others’ hectic schedules with schoolwork, athletics and family.
“It’s an advantage for us because you know how much of that sport demands of your time,” Chachere said. “We’re not like, ‘Babe, why weren’t you able to see me after class,’ because she knew I had practice. So neither of us were really trippin’.”
Communicating their moods and being understanding is an important aspect for their relationship.
“One of the positives of dating another athlete is that if you’re tired, exhausted and not in the mood to do anything. They won’t be nagging at you like, ‘Let’s do this,’ or ‘let’s go here,’” West said.
Luckily for West and Chachere, football and basketball have opposite seasons. However, their time commitments to their sport is year-round.
“She was able to be there to support me at all my games and support me after long practices,” he said. “Then once her season started, mine was over, so I was at all her games.”
They know that the biggest key to dating an athlete is being supportive of them and their sport.
“He went to all of my home games,” West said. “Even if he had late meetings he would rush out and make it to my games.”
West attended all of his home games during her offseason, but because of her basketball workout schedule, she wasn’t able to go to any away games.
With workouts, film and team meetings, they have learned how to make time for each other even during offseasons.
“We had to learn how to be creative with spending our time together,” she said. “Even when we lived in the dorms, one floor apart from each other, we always were together all day, every day.”
Fast forward four years from the day they met, the two still have a strong relationship.
“We have both really matured,” Chachere said. “We were both so young before… we go out to nice restaurants and we’re able to hang out with each others’ families without the other one being there.”
West graduated last spring with a degree in child and adolescent development and moved back down to her hometown of Bakersfield, Calif.
Chachere is finishing his fourth year as a communication major while temporarily living in San Diego to train for the upcoming NFL Draft.
“We’ve always been so inseparable and this (month and a half) away from each other has showed us how we can appreciate each other without being in the same room all the time,” West said.
The athletes have made a future for themselves and have a lot of upcoming plans.
Chachere was recently invited to participate in the NFL Scouting Combine, while West is working as a behavioral therapist for kids with autism.
From being young underclassmen, to Chachere now being an NFL Draft prospect and
West a college graduate with a full-time job, this couple is what you would call “goals.”