by Finley Aldred
Mills Creek High School
Throughout high school each student goes through a balance of classes and extra curricular activities. With students, many reasons can be attributed to the increase of stress levels. The classes students choose whether its honors, Advanced Placement or AP and college prep. There are numerous clubs students can join according to their interests. To add on all of these factors sports are a major part of becoming involved in school.
Student athletes have an additional responsibility to balance their academics as well as their athletic schedule.
“Almost everyday is a struggle to keep up with homework when you have six classes that all require study time and some even have homework. To add practice it’s crazy but swim meet nights are even worse because we have to leave for the pool at 4 p.m. and won’t get back until 11 p.m. so there isn’t much room for study time,” Madison Eck said.
For students it can be difficult finding time in their schedule to attend school, work in class on assignments and find a time to do their homework after practice. With most of the time available to do homework late at night after practice, it begins to impact athletes’ sleep schedules. The less sleep an athlete gets can cause an increase of stress, anxiety, depression and a decrease in athletic performance.
“The AP classes I chose to take had a decent amount of workload, some days more than others of course. I knew sometimes it would be hard to balance school and track, but I also knew I had good time management skills so it wasn’t that difficult most of the time,” Ky’arra Whyte said.
There is also an added pressure on the athletes to be the best at their sport in order to get offers, scholarships and recruitment attention. The changing culture of athleticism has become increasingly competitive which puts an added stress on the athlete to strive to be the best.
“I think the environment is different because there are a lot of new rules that are making it more difficult for high school athletes to get recruited. You will have some athletes who are focused more on athletics rather than academics so maybe they don’t see it as more stressful, but those students who are in high level programs could be adding more stress to the athletes,” Karmen Morrison said.
The issue of competitiveness between JV teams and Varsity also can become a concern.
“When I was trying out for soccer at my school, JV wasn’t given the same amount of fair treatment as Varsity. Even though I did have so much fun on the JV team, it could just get annoying at times. The coaches never said it deliberately but varsity will always be favored, especially if they think the players have a greater chance of going farther in their career,” Camryn Williams said.
With all the pressure added to athletes to perform and maintain a balanced schedule it can be difficult to overlook your mental well being while handling all the stress. It is recommended ever so often to take time and practice self care to make sure that the athlete is replenished and in better health to maintain a good performance.
Rock Star Writers Blog 