By Colin Liversidge
JUGGLING ACT
A young man is standing 40 feet above the ground, his hands aching from constantly tossing and grabbing countless assignments and practice meets up and down. His sweat pools at the bottom of his feet, which are struggling to stay bal-
anced on the tightrope he’s standing on, trying to not look down and see the bad grades moaning at him from below. A juggling act is usually reserved for circus performers, but for a student athlete it’s all too easy to use it as the perfect description
for their daily lives. The Modern American Student is a very different beast than It was many years ago. No where is this more prevalent than with the case of the student athlete. “Sometimes I wonder how much better my grades would be if I was just not doing a sport, but I love it so much that it’d be hard to quit,” says Kate Atherton, a student and athlete at Mountain View High School. She notes that for most students, homework is already a stressful issue, but for an athlete it’s even worse. “The weekdays are probably the hardest. I can typically find time and finish
something during lunch and finish it up quickly during brunch.(Kate)” Some believe that the issue stems from the natural stress that comes with sports. Most competitive activities (like sports) are inherently stressful, says Parker Jue. “I do believe that being stressed comes with committing to a sport. Because there’s the factor of giving your time to that. And that kind of takes away from other things like, schoolwork.” The issue has been gaining more and more momentum over the years as both students and teachers are taking note of the issue. Several studies say that students who try to do
sports will consistently get worse grades and more stress than those without. Many researchers acknowledge that participation in athletics can serve as a distraction to stress (Hudd et al., 2000; Kimball &
Freysinger, 2003; Kudlacek, 1997; Shirka, 1997), however, studies also suggest that athletic participation itself can become an additional stressor that traditional college students do not experience (Kimball & Freysinger,
2003; Papanikolaou, Nikolaidis, Patsiaouras, & Alexopoulos, 2003). Mr. Dilloughery, a local math teacher, tells us his point of view. “I think a part of it is self-imposed. Students tend to push themselves to do too many things, I think that’s maybe a personal choice? But part of it too I think that, you know some teachers maybe do too, forget how many classes kids take on a daily basis.” (Dilloughery) The issue is on a nationwide scale. Many believe the root of the issue stems from the fact that many students do the sport because they have to, rather than they want to. Cameron Fitz backs this up. “As
a middle schooler you don’t really have a lot of things going on. It’s just about having fun and getting ready for high school but, as soon like when you get into high school it’s like. Ok, it’s crunch time you gotta get into college and that’s when academics become a priority, and sports become less so, unless you’re trying to go for school for sports.” Sports will be stressful and take up a lot of your time, but it’s usually fun enough for the trade be worth it. Many fear the current college centric atmosphere of schools is making being a student athlete more of a chore than any-
thing. But these people are wrong. Parker explains. “If you’re truly committed to a sport and stay with it, your sole purpose probably isn’t to use it for college. Because think of all the time and all the effort and the stress that you have to go to go through to do it. I feel like a lot of people wouldn’t put so much of themselves into it if it was just to get into
a college.(parker)” The fact of the matter is that people love to do sports because they love to do sports. Not because of some crazy, kooky conspiracy that schools are trying to make it harder to graduate. People are stressed, but that’s not the issue. Emily Krochus of the NCAA says it best, “Rather than trying to differentiate between performance anxiety and an anxiety disorder,
I think it’s beneficial to determine whether the anxiety is functional or dysfunctional for the student-athlete in their context. - The best questions to ask include: ‘Is the emotion helping with day-to-day functioning? Is it helping with performance?’ Coaches, athletic trainers, academic counselors, and other athletic department personnel have the benefit of seeing student-athletes across multiple contexts: on the court, on road trips, and in team meetings. Consequently, they are well positioned to get a sense of how the student-athlete is doing. While some individuals might appear to only get anxious in certain
situations—for example on the court or field of play – emotions are rarely isolated to one situation and this individual may be having difficulties elsewhere. The Student athlete is a very different beast than it was many years ago, but there’s one thing that unifies it, passion. Parker comments, “Don’t think that committing to a sport is going to make your life difficult, and don’t let that hold you back from doing what you love. And honestly yes it’s going to get hard but yes, that comes with the sport. You can’t think ‘oh I can overcome being stressed and juggling school’ because to be
honest I don’t think it’s ever really going to happen where you don’t have any stress.” Yes, School may be a juggling act, but the show must go on.
Works Cited: Atherton, Kate. Personal interview. 2 March 2016. Dilloughery, Brendan. Personal interview. 25 March 2016. Emily Kroshus, ScD, MPH. Ask the expert: Anxiety and athletes – what can we do?, 4 December 2014. Hudd, S., Dumlao, J., Erdmann-Sager, D., Murray, D., Phan, E., Soukas, N., & Yokozuka, N. (2000). Stress at college: Effects on health habits, health status and self-esteem. College Student Journal, 34, 217-227. Jue, Parker. Personal interview. 2 May 2016. Kimball, A., & Freysinger, V. J. (2003). Leisure, stress, and coping: The sport participation of collegiate student-athletes. Leisure Sciences, 25, 115-141.
Suhel Hasan. If I'm not good in academics and in extra-curricular activities does that mean I'm useless and unworthy? n.d. Date Accessed, 14 April 2016.