Are the kids alright, amid the many demands of young athletes?
Recently, a student approached North Allegheny athletic trainer and teacher Bill Love and said he was excited to try out for a certain sport in the coming weeks. Love was happy to hear it, and asked why he wanted to try out.
“He said, ‘I just want to be around people,’ ” Love recalled.
Community is a tenet of sports culture and can also help to address mental health issues that plague some student athletes.
And at a school as competitive as North Allegheny, it’s prioritized.
“At North Allegheny, we develop a family-first mentality,” said Love. “The kids are very tightly connected outside of school. It’s more than just a sport. We see the numbers of kids trying out for sports steadily increasing because of the culture of community we create.”
Struggling with mental health is certainly not unique to athletes in general, but adolescents and young adults involved in sports face a specific set of challenges — including balancing schoolwork and workouts, comparison via social media and performance pressure.
According to a 2021 survey from the American College of Sports Medicine, 30% of college-level female athletes and 25% of male athletes reported experiencing mental health challenges, while only 10% report seeking help. That same year, one in five U.S. adults experienced a mental health disorder, according to statistics from the National Alliance on Mental Illness, though athletic status was not specifically parsed out.
But while these challenges persist at schools, increased awareness of mental health challenges and an openness among top athletes is helping to dispel stigma and improve conditions.
“Very few people would question the fact that coaches, or people within the sport environment, should have First Aid or CPR training,” said Skye Arthur-Banning, the director of research and development and cofounder of the U.S. Center for Mental Health and Sport. “But we all should have that element of mental health awareness training to some degree.” Both physical and mental health, he said, are “equallyimportant.”
The nonprofit goes directly schools and provides training on how coaches can talk about mental health and the important signs to watch for. In 2023, the center completed 75 trainings across the nation, including two in Pennsylvania.
“This year, we are well on pace to double that,” said Arthur-Banning.
And mental skills athletic coaches are becoming more popular, with the role of specifically addressing the mental health and performance challenges that athletes face.
One of the biggest issues, said Love, is time management.
“They’re dealing with athletics at the same times as academics, and trying to not only maintain excellent grades, but they’re doing multiple hours of activity.”
Time commitment can vary based on the sport, he said. For instance, the volleyball team practices right after school from about 2:30 to 5:30 p.m., so kids would be on campus for around nine hours. The baseball team is shuffled inside for practice on days with inclement weather — after dinner, when all other sports conclude, said Love. And for kids to be competitive with the rigor of an award-winning school district such as North Allegheny, many also play on club teams outside of school.
Stress from long hours of playing and being on campus can be compounded by the internal pressure kids put on themselves to excel at both academics and sports.
George Pappas, a retired sports psychologist living in Squirrel Hill, who worked with young athletes for nearly 40 years, said he saw many kids — often with perfectionist tendencies — that had reached their wits’ end.
“Some children were crying at me, saying, ‘I can’t take it ,’” he said .“They’ re pushing themselves .… They try to be perfect in sports as well as academics. They have their own internal motivations.”
And sometimes, it’s not only the kids pushing themselves, it’s parents or coaches piling the stress on. Pappas said throughout his career, there were times he told parents to ease up and reminded them that stress will negatively impact their kids’ performance in the long run.
Performance pressure can paralyze athletes and eat away at their self-confidence, said Melissa White, a mental performance coach for Hempfield Area High School varsity football team and the varsity coach for javelin and pole vaulting. Confidence and performance pressure are linked, she said — and addressing self-confidence can ease anxiety.
A former award-winning pole vaulter herself, she has a doctorate in sports psychology, runs a consulting business as a performance coach, and teaches sixth grade science at the school. When she started her business in 2018, she said, she was the only sports psychologist in West more land County.
White has noticed an uptick post-COVID in the levels of fear among her athletes.
“There was a period of time when people weren’t competing or having that pressure on them,” she said. “I think they kind of forgot how to handle those pressures and stressors.”
And a prevailing stigma surrounding mental health can make it even harder if kids don’t feel like they have someone to turn to. While comparison and body image issues are already rife among teenagers, White and Love said they especially notice it with their athletes.
“The biggest stressor kids face today is the unrelenting idea that they have to be somebody,” said Love. “We are the most disconnected and connected group we’ve seen in the history of this planet. We’re constantly tapped in and yet we struggle to have meaningful and tangible interactions.”
Social media has altered perceptions even more. Athletes are encouraged to make “highlight reels” of their plays and skills that coaches will look at.
“If you don’t have anything brag-worthy, coaches will notice that,” White said.
This has further created the idea for some athletes that sports is their entire future, so dispelling this myth is a worthycause, said experts.
“We are moving to earlier specialization of athletes,” said Arthur-Banning. “It’s essentially eliminating opportunities for them to have multiple identities.”
Pappas said he tried to let parents know life is not all sports, and that kids should have something to fall back on.
All interviewed thought that stigma surrounding mental health has improved, thanks in part to high-profile athletes being more transparent about their own struggles. Among the most high-profile: In 2021, gold medalist Simone Biles announced her withdrawal from the USA Gymnastics’ team competition in the Tokyo Olympics due to mental health struggles and performance pressure.
“I truly do feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders at times,” Biles posted on Instagram before pulling out.
“Athletes are expected to be the role model,” said Margaret Domka, executive director of the U.S. Center for Mental Health and Sport. “They’re already segmented out as that person who’s supposed to be tough and strong. And we all have a tendency to believe that that athletic person has everything going for them. So now, they need to continually prove that, and on top of it, on social media they need to show that everything is fantastic.”
White said her business increased after Biles’ announcement, and that it was
a step in the right direction for people feeling more comfortable asking for help.
“I’m glad to see recent news media promoting mental health,” said Pappas. “When I started in 1986, people didn’t even know what a sports psychologist was. … I had some parents say to me, ‘Please don’t let anyone know they’re seeing a therapist.’ ”
Positive self-talk can go a long way in encouraging athletes and amping up their confidence.
“I’ve learned that a lot of people don’t talk kindly to themselves,” said White.
She tries to create an atmosphere of openness and asks her athletes, “What went right today?” That allows them to reframe their performance instead of focusing on the negatives or comparing themselves to others.
And while potential stressors are always lurking, Love stressedthe need to recognize the “important outlet” that athletics can provide.
“They’re one of the best ways to develop a wellrounded person — by facing adversity and developing character.”