By Tramar Reece and Gianna Stephens
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writers
Student-athletes have been struggling with their mental health, from being pressured to being overwhelmed. Mental health has been in the spotlight for policy makers and the media, but it’s not talked about enough in student athletics.
Athletes could look like they are celebrities because of how many opportunities they have in sports. People look up to them, and they look like they have it all. They have all these fans, all these opportunities. The team bus is the tour bus. The fans are the paparazzi. They struggle with their lives behind the smiles everyone sees in team photos.
The American College of Sports and Medicine (ACSM) says that one out of every five adults Experience mental health conditions at some point in their life.” Among the student-athletes, 30% of the female athletes and 25% of the male athletes have experienced anxiety. However, only 10% of student-athletes seek professional help.
According to the NCAA, 63% of student-athletes are willing to get help with their mental health, but data shows students are less likely to say they had help from professionals.
Over a four-month span from last year January to May 5, collegiate athletes took their own lives due to mental issues; this is one of the credited reasons why colleges across the country are making it a bigger topic because people are concerned that the universities are not making it as big as it is, they are not doing enough. According to the NCAA, pandemic mental health cases in student-athletes have increased 1.5 percent.
Student-athletes are used to having a lifestyle that could be considered hectic because they have sports in addition to school and work.
Samson Jackson, a football player at Ohio University said that athletes are now realizing the challenges that they’ve been through with sports.
“Giving athletes like us, time alone for months when we are used to a hectic life cycle, giving us time to sit and think really opened a can of worms many weren’t ready for,” Jackson said.
Student-athletes getting time to themselves helped them learn what’s causing them the problems they have had due to the pandemic.
“At that time in everyone’s life was tough; we almost never had three weeks alone to ourselves let alone three months with only ourselves and the 4 walls of our home, some people were bound to find the real them,” Jackson would continue to say.
‘Next man up.’ Words almost every coach preaches to their players. Coaches would automatically replace a student-athlete if they’re struggling with something instead of helping them, including mental health, which leads to the stigmatization.
“It’s always someone right behind you ready to take your spot so as soon as something goes wrong, you get replaced, they don’t care about you,” Jackson said.
Jackson would also say that there’s a disconnect between the players and coaches. He feels like they don’t talk about it enough, but when you ask coaches, they speak about it all the time.
Lance Yaniger, Towson University’s Director of Football Operations believes most players just don’t listen when coaches speak so they don’t hear those parts, but he assures they are talked about.
“We talk about it almost every week; we tell them they have people to go to, and we have signs up all across the offices about mental health,” Yaniger said.
Student-athletes want to get help, but they have trouble finding who they can trust. They are worried that they would be seen as weak, not knowing what is happening, even the stress of home life and the added pressure received from family.
Charlotte McIntyre, an Olympic coach at Wyoming University said that the negative comments the coaches would say behind the players’ backs and some even to the players themselves.
“I get to see it from both sides, I’m in the meetings with the coaches, but the athletes trust me enough to talk to me about things they don’t tell their coaches.” McIntyre would continue to say, “It really opens your eyes to the truth behind a lot of things most people don’t know what goes on and honestly, I think it’s disgusting.” McIntyre said.
McIntyre said that a lot of the female athletes were told to lose weight; they weigh too much which leads to depression, eating disorders, etc.
“No one should ever be talked to how some of these athletes are talked to, especially at a
critical age in their life where they are becoming adults,” said McIntyre.
It ended abruptly. Conclude with a couple of sentences on the changes anticipated in the culture for student athletes.