Every sport is just as much mental as physical. MCLean hospital said depression in athletes is the least talked about type of depression. Being a student athlete is the most demanding activity a child can participate in. Balancing playing and practice, and managing a good GPA can all be too much. How does being a student athlete affect mental health? 

“The hardest part of being an athlete is trying to be the best you can be.” Karoly Shults said. “Sports affect your mental health because it depends on your team, if you have a bad team there will be repercussions. Coaches should talk about mental health because they should want to know how their athletes are doing.”

All kids play different sports whether that is basketball, football, volleyball, soccer and many more but do they all take the same amount of energy and time. Do they all have the same effects on the brain?

“Manging schoolwork with practice and balancing a social life can all be challenging things to do.” James Birmingham said. “ Sports affect mental health because it can have positives and negatives. Like if you make a mistake and you get yelled at or you do something good and get praised. An experience that shows this was when last fall baseball season I made a big mistake during the play. It took me many months to regain the trust of my team.”

  Why should people such as athletes and coaches pay more attention to their mental health, is it even important or does it have an impact? The mental state is what state the mind is in, the mind controls all things that go on in your body. 

    “When someone doesn’t have good mental health it will affect how they play.” 

  Maci “ To help you stay calm and not stress you can get class work done before practice and focus on breathing exercises.”                                                                                                                                                              

    With all this, all the stresses that come with being a student athlete, how does someone do it all? Managing grades, homework, games, practices, making time for a social life, how does all this not become too much?

“Half of what being an athlete is can be being great at a sport but if you have bad mental health you won’t excel.” Maddison Borders said. “ Things that can help is having a planner and working on time management and knowing when you have games and practice so you can be prepared.”