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How Humber supports it’s student-athletes
Hajar Rifai: Senior Reporter
It’s not uncommon for student-athletes to struggle with mental health, and Humber is doing their part to help lessen the burden.
A combination of faculty support, players holding each other accountable and students communicating with faculty when help is needed, aids student-athletes in balancing student life and personal life healthily.
Playing a sport takes a lot of time and commitment from the students. To ensure Humber athletes balance the demands of school, personal life, and athletics, the college has several measures in place to ensure Humber student-athletes stay mentally and physically well.
Like their non-athletic student counterparts, student-athletes must juggle school, personal life, and Humber’s athletic schedule. For student-athletes that balance can be hard to achieve without the proper accommodations.
Humber Men’s basketball Head Coach Omar Miles said his role as a high school teacher helped him figure out the best ways to encourage a work-life balance.
He said, “We have academic advisors and as a head coach and as an educator…we tend to focus a lot on being student-athletes, so making sure that we are not inun- dated with basketball. But also we have time for study hall. We have time for things away from the game as well.” That’s not a balance that’s easy to achieve, Miles said.
“We just use the services that we have, so we have strength and conditioning, and we also have therapy,” he said. Miles makes full use of Humber’s services, and he makes sure to give his players time off so they have downtime and to not hold practices on the weekend.
For extra help, he turns to the student-athletes’ academic advisors for support to cater to the players. “I think the school accommodates them. So when they have games or practices (and miss class work), the school makes sure that they are not (penalized) by it,” Miles said.
He says, “there’s a heads up that goes to the profs, so if extensions need to be in place, that’s put into place by our academic department.” A study called Athletic Director’s Desk Reference 2nd Edition by Donna A. Lopiano and Connee Zotos said some coaches put athletes “in untenable situations where they cannot keep up with their studies. yet there’s also pressure on them to get grades that will maintain eligibility to participate” in their sport.
