Do athletes mentally struggle? Some say yes; some say no. There have been multiple articles, opinion pieces, and research on whether athletes really mentally struggle, or if they are just in their heads about a game or event.
Multiple factors can challenge a person’s mental health, and from a high school athlete’s perspective, these factors are multiplied. Your average high school athlete can spend nearly 1,000 hours in practices plus games or events over a six-month period.
Ava Workman, a sophomore at Greenbrier East, has had a successful basketball career throughout middle and high school. “There are times when I have great games and feel like I still didn’t do enough, or bad games that make me reflect [on] what I could’ve done better,” Workman said. “Playing basketball takes up a lot of time, especially with six days of practice a week.”
Although exhausting practices and fierce competition take away an athlete’s time to unwind or hang out with friends, there are also advantages like staying in shape, getting out of the house, traveling different places to play other teams, rivalry, and building bonds with teammates.
Here at Greenbrier East we have 10 sports teams–female and male–who are all great in their own way and have all enjoyed their own successes, but with that success comes struggle.
“I usually tell [the players] it’s just a game and you want to play to win,” East’s head football coach Ray Lee said, “but keep in mind, at the end of the day it is just a game, and if you play the game just HAVE FUN.”
But do some of these athletes actually take it as only fun? Juniors Brody Hamric and Grant Burdette, are on the collegiate radar to play football at the next level, but sometimes not all team members take the season as seriously as a Hamric or a Burdette. The football team had a rough 3–7 2024 season: Not the worst the Spartans have ever had, but not the best. A losing season can affect players and coaches alike, because of all the work that goes into endless practices in the hot sun and the late games in the freezing cold. This year the Spartans beat teams they were told they would lose to, then turned around and lost to teams they could have beaten. Losing a game is no good for any team, but loss can provide lessons for the next time.
Lee says losses can be hard on dedicated players. “After a loss…I hate it for my players because of how they feel,” Lee said. “My feelings after a loss [are] low because I wanted my players to be successful and know that feeling of success.” Clearly, players are not the only people who struggle with frustration. A coach, who has dedicated their life to further young students’ athletic abilities in playing the game the coach once loved, also feels disappointment.
Sports aside, there are some occupations that require athleticism and team bonds. At our own Greenbrier East we have four teachers who were once active in military service, which requires enlisted people to create strong bonds that lead to lifelong friendships. Command Sergeant Major Jerry Long teaches JROTC and always finds a way to elaborate on what it’s like being in the military to his students.
“Yes, I tell them [about] being away from family and the struggles of being a leader,” Long said. “The struggles of casualties and losing close friends in the war, and having to do things you don’t want to do [but] you signed a commitment to your country and to defend the constitution of your country.”
JROTC students come away with an awareness that it is possible to do what you love, but doing so also comes with its doubts and hardships and the negative effects on mental health that come from not knowing if you will come home from deployment and trying to keep going when you’re exhausted and running off two hours of sleep, and maybe dealing with an injury or something else. If one is in fear then they all are in fear because they all want to go home to their family or their pets. In those instances, Long said, “I just continued to look at my soldiers around me and be there for them, and they will be there to pull you out of the struggle…Iron sharpens iron.” He said that being in the military gave him so many tools in life that an office job cannot, and he wouldn’t trade it for anything else.
There are professional athletes who have opened up to the public about their struggle with mental health, such as Olympic gymnast Simone Biles and tennis champion Naomi Osaka. These world-class athletes have offered tools, advice, and words of wisdom to young athletes who are struggling, not least of all with the criticism that comes their way.
“I say put mental health first,” Osaka said. “Because if you don’t, then you’re not going to enjoy your score and you’re not gonna succeed as much as you want to.”
“So, it’s okay sometimes to even sit out the big competitions to focus on yourself,” Biles said. “Because it shows how strong of a competitor or a person that you really are.”
It takes a lot to sit out of games through injuries or sickness, but it has to happen, and that can take a toll on somebody who feels that sport is all they have, yet they aren’t even allowed to play or practice. It’s important to realize that just being there for your team is the most valuable contribution.
There are multiple athletes, military personnel, and everyday people who struggle with mental health. People make it seem like it is a big deal if someone is mentally struggling because they haven’t faced that themselves yet. Mental health can make or break a person, but you yourself have to find a grip on your own reality and realize you are stronger than what you are putting out.
