At Lake Stevens High School we take pride in our athletics and how student athletes represent us as Vikings. Athletes have high standards and expectations to meet in order to achieve their goals which are created by themselves, their peers and coaches. Mental health can be a positive building block to being your best self. But it can also be destructive towards one’s athletic and academic career.
Senior Riley Bradstreet plays a crucial role in our women’s varsity soccer team where every individual has dealt with hard mental challenges they have faced in their athletic careers.
“Comparing myself to other athletes, I think I set a really high expectation for myself, and when I don’t meet those expectations, I get down on myself,” senior Riley Bradstreet.
Comparison and expectations will drag people down and bring others with you if you are not carefully taking care of not just athletes physical health but most importantly their mental.
From the boys Varsity Basketball team seniors Jezreel Kilroy and Daniel Ngezaho have both experienced burnout and had different ways of recognizing it. Burnout can happen from mental and physical exhaustion, overworking the mind and body while consistently working towards their goals. Everyone has their own way of dealing with it, the way they decide may help to get them back on track, or dig the hole deeper.
“I felt like how I recognized it was I didn’t want to do anything, I didn’t want to go to school, I didn’t want to talk to anybody,” senior Ngezaho said.
Excluding athletes when their mindset is low can lead to depression and inactivity, being alone may seem like the best solution but reaching out to others and finding resources is the best option for everyone.
“My coaches kept, like, playing me, and I was like, I can’t play. Like I have, like, my legs hurting. And then I got messed up more for like, about four or five months, I was out on crutches, and I just quit. And I think that was like the burnout that I had mentally and physically,” senior Kilroy said.
Students at LSHS may lack personal resources and the ability to reach out when they are feeling low and doubtful. When needed, they need to know where and when to reach out so they don’t have to go through any struggles alone. They have coaches they can reach out to and the mental health counselors at the school for their mental health.
“Mental health affects my performance in the way of like clouding my judgment and messing with my decision making,” senior Joshua Bouley said.
Mental health plays a role with every athlete at some point in their athletic career. Whether that be found in comparison, judgement, injuries, challenges and more, no one is perfect at dealing with it, and not everyone knows where and how to find help.
Overall mental health impacts athletes with their performance on the field, When they get injured, pressure and expectations of other people and family.
