Stress of Student-Athletes Takes a Toll

Oskar Glahn

Staff Writer

Students nowadays can undergo a lot of stress due to high amounts of schoolwork and the social life of attending high school or university. Now add sports; intensive workouts, practice and film sessions, and a lot less time to do schoolwork. Being a student-athlete can undoubtedly add a lot of stress to your everyday life.

Personally, I have played many sports throughout high school. It isn’t always easy to balance good grades and good performance as an athlete. School, ideally, would be one’s first priority while being a student-athlete, but for many it is not, for good reasons. Personally,  I take sports a lot more seriously than I take school, because I am a lot more passionate about the sports I play. Although I try in school to get good grades, I won’t ever miss practice or a game because I have schoolwork to do.

As a productive athlete, you need to get good sleep, balance your calories and eat healthy, train correctly, prevent or recover from injuries, all while improving your ability to play your sport. Think about professional athletes. Although they have more on their plate than an average high school athlete, that is their whole life. They spend each and every one of their days thinking about their end goal: improving their game. Many high school athletes share this goal, while also having to keep up with a tedious school schedule. Student-athletes need to find time to go to the gym, train, eat, and get decent sleep while spending seven to eight hours at school, plus the commute both ways, as well as the time it takes to do homework.

Coaches and teachers often overlook students’ stress levels and mental health. Smothering students with busywork never will be an effective way of teaching, and I feel like that could and should be changed because school is about learning, not being kept busy. 

Overall, balancing physical and mental health and sports is not an easy thing to do. With the help of a good coach and sympathetic teachers, athletes can enjoy their sport while not being overloaded with schoolwork. Coaches and teachers should not look over the hard work students-athletes put into their everyday lives, it’s not easy.