It has never been harder to be a student-athlete in high school and college. Social media, parents’ expectations and numerous factors play into an athlete’s fractured psyche.
According to a study by the NCAA, student-athletes have 1.5 to two times the amount of mental exhaustion, depression and anxiety than before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The American College of Sports Medicine did a study on mental health challenges for athletes as well.
“Approximately 30% of women and 25% of men who are student-athletes report having anxiety, and only 10% of all college athletes with known mental health conditions seek care from a mental health professional,” according to the study.
With student-athletes facing these challenges, The Durango Herald spoke with local high school and college coaches to see how they keep their athletes fresh mentally and physically to avoid burnout. The same three questions were asked to every coach interviewed and the conversation ensued from there.
What do you do to stop your players from being burned out?
Many of the coaches the Herald spoke to emphasize two components: Keeping the game fun and giving players time to rest.
“First of all, making sure that the reason why they're doing it is for healthy reasons,” Fort Lewis football coach Johnny Cox said. “Are you doing this for anything but the joy of it? If you’re being forced, if you’re not really enjoying it, then you’ve got the wrong perspective, and we want to make sure they’re changing it.”
Bayfield boys soccer coach Chris Zoltowski said his team does yoga instead of intense training in between closely scheduled games to help with their mental state. Zoltowski also gives his players a day off every week to focus on their schoolwork.
Fort Lewis women’s basketball coach Taylor Harris said he focuses on allowing his players to “really be off” when there’s an off day, a vacation period and during summer break. It’s about allowing them to “just really detach themselves from the sport.”
“Not only is that off time good physically, but mentally it’s even more important,” he said.
Durango cross country coach Ron Keller said his approach to burnout is developing relationships with his runners so he knows where burnout is coming from. Students try out for the cross country team for various reasons, so it’s important to know what each student’s goal is so they can be helped if burnout occurs, according to Keller.
Are players getting burned out more or less than in the past?
Many coaches said they didn’t see a change. The student-athletes today are different from a cultural standpoint, according to Fort Lewis men’s soccer coach David Oberholtzer.
“I think kind of the old school mentality of ‘shut up and work’ doesn't really work these days, nor should it honestly,” he said.
Durango girls soccer coach Melissa Halonen said there’s more demand on players today with multisport athletes balancing travel, academics and a social life.
However, social media was brought up as a two-sided coin when it comes to burnout.
Harris said social media can help with burnout. He claimed there is positive messaging on social media that if an athlete isn’t having fun that they should quit their sport and prioritize their mental health.
Durango cross country assistant coach Michael Fadil discussed the downside of social media.
“The social media stuff is insane,” Fadil said. “All the kids regularly get this montage of greatness of everybody else, even though those things are little slivers of everyone's life. Ninety-eight percent of everyone's life is just day-to-day stuff. No one posts all the crappy stuff that happens in their crappy races.”
Are parents burning out their children more than ever?
Numerous coaches said they worry about parents pushing their kids to be one-sport athletes in relation to burnout. For example, Cox pointed to Michael Jordan playing basketball and baseball during his career as a multisport role model.
Some parents have lived vicariously through their children since the 1980s and 1990s, Harris said.
Halonen claimed parents can be too result-driven these days. Fadil agreed, claiming that parents posting about their child’s accomplishments online doesn’t have much benefit.
“It may start with a parent,” Keller said about burnout. “A parent has great aspirations for their kid, and they think their kid is maybe better than they really are. I think there's conflict there that comes when the kid is pushed and the kid doesn't turn out to be as good as the parent thinks that they might be.”
bkelly@durangoherald.com
