The month of October brings awareness to a variety of sicknesses, mental and physical. The common one that most people are aware of is breast cancer awareness.
However, with October being centered around breast cancer awareness, it is often overlooked that this month also brings awareness to depression.
From an outsider’s perspective, student-athletes perform amazingly on and off the field without any hesitation or setbacks, but that may not be the case.
From the outside everyone seems okay, but what do people find when they take a look on the inside?
When you take a look inside the minds of student-athletes, you may come to find that they struggle with depression, anxiety, eating disorders, exhaustion, burnout, fear, etc…
Student-athletes are manifested to “have it all together” when sometimes they do not.
Athletes can struggle with teammate dynamics, coach dynamics, the balance between school work, training, sleep, their mental judgment of their performances, and so on.
Topic 1: Coach and Team Dynamics
It has been said that a good or bad coach can make or break a player, and with my experience in sports, I have found that to be true.
I have seen it on both sides of the spectrum with playing two different sports.
The reality is that not every athlete is going to get along or agree with their coach, and this situation lends itself to the greater question of whether or not a coach is bad.
So what defines a good coach?
A good coach lifts the players up while pushing them to their fullest potential. This kind of coach will be honest with players and the team to make them better, and help them achieve their goals.
This kind of coach may raise their voice in the moment, but not cause any harm or do so with the intention of acting maliciously. At a later time, maybe the practice following the event, they will assess their reasons for the change in their tone.
A good coach wants what is best for the team, but they also care about each player individually. They will also give their players constructive criticism to better their levels of play.
These kinds of coaches make a majority of their athletes want to work harder and continue getting better, and they do not cause a decline in the mental health of their athletes.
A bad coach, however, yells without explanation, provides no feedback, shows favoritism, and only cares about certain individuals on the team instead of the whole team.
These coaches also make their athletes feel like they have no confidence in their abilities.
The athletes who fall on the upper hand of the spectrum (the favored athetes) see no wrongdoing in these coaches.
However, the athletes who fall on the lower hand of the spectrum can develop a severe lack of confidence, which can hinder their ability to play to their fullest potential.
These athletes could recognize an increase in their anxiety levels whenever they step foot on their fields, and the worse scenario; they can lose their love for their sport.
I have been on teams with great dynamics, and I have also experienced teams with weak dynamics.
Typically a weaker dynamic is a result of poor coaching. Favoritism amongst athletes can allow them to act out in ways against their other teammates without fear of consequence.
I have experienced bullying within teams I have been a part of. Bullying and other forms of mistreatment from teammates can seriously affect athletes and their mental health.
Athletes can experience severe depression and fear the practices and games to come. They could also develop suicidal ideation because of this treatment.
Topic 2: Balancing Life’s Obstacles
Balance is hard for young student-athletes, especially for high school students.
Sometimes students’ practices run for two-plus hours a night, then they have to come home, exhausted, to homework.
Then there are other nights where students have games, and those run even later than practices, and still athletes have to go home to homework.
High school athletes tend to be high-achieving students academically, which means their choices in classes can be rigorous, preventing them from having any study halls to make up some of their work from previous nights.
This results in students coming to school exhausted because they had to stay up late the previous night so they do not fall behind.
These teenagers are also overwhelmed because of their workloads.
Being a student-athlete myself I know balancing everything can be extremely stressful and challenging.
There have been nights where I have not gotten home until 10-11:00 and had at least an hour’s worth of schoolwork, allowing me a maximum of six hours of sleep, and then I have to get up the next day and repeat the same cycle.
Upon arrival home on these late nights, I find myself overwhelmed because I have all this work, and I also know I am not going to get a lot of sleep which stresses me out extremely.
Some teachers understand the lifestyle of student-athletes, but they also see it as you choose to play these sports, you are expected to keep up with the class and the workloads that follow.
Another stressful aspect of the school day as a student-athlete is early dismissal for games.
Students can feel overwhelmed because they could feel as if they are falling behind in classes, or just stressed out with the workloads as a result of their absences.
Topic 3: Self Judgement
Contrary to popular belief, the hardest critic of an athlete’s performance on the field is themselves.
A coach’s criticism is to better the athlete and their level of play. Criticism from the athlete only drags them into a deep hole that they can get stuck in for a while.
Sports are designed for mistakes and failures. We are imperfect human beings and what athletes have a hard time grasping is that we are going to make mistakes.
The expectation is that after the mistake, you learn from it, then you pick yourself up, forget about it, and lastly, move on to the next play.
Ownership takes a lot of maturity, but it is also one of the best ways to move forward in the game. All you have to do is say, “My bad guys, let’s go! Pick me up and let’s keep working hard.”
Some athletes heap an extreme amount of pressure on themselves because they feel that the weight of the world is on their shoulders.
This pressure weighs them heavier and heavier into the ground. Their only thought process is that when they make a mistake they cannot rebound from it.
It then becomes a downward spiral from that point forward, and even after the conclusion of the game they will go home, and some will cry, some can have panic attacks, and some just refuse to allow their brain to stop thinking about it.
In any of these forms of negative self-reflection, they are beating themselves up mentally, downgrading their confidence in their abilities, and dwelling on the negatives.
One of the hardest things for athletes to do is focus on the positives. They could have played a perfect game, except for one small mistake.
Instead of enjoying their stellar performance, they dwell and dwell on that mistake and convince their minds that they played awful, and are an awful player.
Then entering into the next game or practice they already feel defeated in their heads, and then their physical playing abilities suffer.
This spiral drags athletes into depressive episodes that sometimes make them feel hopeless.
They may even consider giving up their sport, or to an extreme level, giving up their own lives all because of one small mistake.
It is not easy to be a student-athlete, and there are so many more obstacles that they have to deal with than what is listed above.
Athletes, please listen to me. It is okay to not be okay!
You do not always have to be mentally strong. It may seem like you are in a rough patch right now.
You may feel alone or hopeless, but I promise you it will get better! I have been there, I have struggled with all the topics listed above, and I have been in a similar place to what you may feel right now.
You should be able to play your sport out of love for it, and not have to deal with or worry about any of the topics listed above. There is so much more potential in you than a performance on a field, so please take care of yourself, and prioritize your mental health!
You only get so many years to play, so go out there and have fun and play for you and only you! Enjoy it, love it, and make the most of it!
I promise you that you are NEVER alone! There is help, and there is support! The key thing to remember is that YOU ARE MORE THAN YOUR SPORT! Your sport DOES NOT DEFINE YOU AS PERSON!
Featured photo (at top): Junior Raigan Fredericks is the print Editor-In-Chief of The Arrowhead. Her monthly column, “Real Talk With Raigan,” focuses on different aspects of mental health.
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