Let's All Remember: They're Just Kids, and it's Just a Game
Student-Athletes have always been under an immense amount of pressure to perform. Whether it's scholarship money, playing time, or personal expectations that particular demographic seems to have a tougher time relaxing than most. The pressure grew with the introduction of TV rights, and grew further as coaching salaries began to grow to astronomical levels. We’ve now put immense pressure on the men and women who are supposed to lead these kids, and priorities start to blur when their own families are on the chopping block in any given season.While the pressure has risen in college, it too has risen at the youth level. Families are committing thousands of dollars each year for their child to join a travel team, compete in different states, or train with the best coaches in the area. Many families have been sold the idea that these investments will pay back in dividends with a college athletic scholarship, but the reality is that most student-athletes - and even most college athletes - will never get an athletic package that returns the investment made in high school.I’d imagine if you look at high school seniors, you’d find an uptick in anxiety and depression from the thousands of kids who don’t quite make the cut for athletic aid. Kids know how much it costs to play competitive sports nowadays, and there is inevitable ownership of that investment. There can be a feeling of “owing” your family that money back in aid, and those who can’t do it out of high school will struggle with that assumed failure. Strangely enough, I think those are the lucky ones. If you’re lucky enough to earn an athletic scholarship, now you have to worry about keeping it. Despite what the NCAA rules may say, athletic aid can be given and taken away at will. Coaches will always find a way, and athletic departments will always side with coaches. College athletics exists in a “what have you done for me lately” environment, and an astoundingly low number of games can be the difference between someone playing and sitting.Reasons vary from team to team, but players rise and fall in every program. If those kids have been taught from their youth playing days that their value is tied to their athletic ability, those thoughts can send someone to dark places if they’re not performing at an expected level or achieving expected results. I know this from personal experience. When that happens, many kids feel like they have failed at life, because they were under the impression that their sport was their life. It’s not a fluke that we have lost six student-athletes in the last six weeks to suicide, and I feel more hurt and less surprised every time we hear of a new case.I’m not saying that every athlete is going to have these struggles, but to not recognize a pattern among college athletes is simply ignorant. We need to change the way we approach college athletics, and more importantly, we need to find effective ways to teach kids that they are more than their sport.
