Hello Mesa Nation, and welcome back to The Hitching Post!
In my last article, we had taken a little peak at what our swim team here is really about, and today, we will be talking about a similar subject; the life of a student athlete.
For this article, I am going to interview fellow students and ask them about the pressure behind the scenes, and how the mental impact of balancing academics and sports affects them.
Mia Walker
Sophomore Mia Walker, a volleyball player, said, “It’s very hard to deal with the pressure on the court of making mistakes and letting my teammates down, which also mentally affects me, because I tend to stress out about the game before I’m even on the court.
The behind the scenes of my schedule is probably similar to any other student athlete. It gets very tiring going from a 6 hour school day straight to the court, then straight to homework. Because of the tight schedule I tend to have various missing assignments, because it’s super hard to balance the two.
Game days are also very stressful, because you get home super late, and are hit with a bunch of assignments that are due the next day. Overall it’s just very tiring, however it’s worth it in the end, because playing on the court is one of the best parts of high school.”
Karolina Sangasy
Karolina Sangasy is a fellow teammate of mine on the varsity swim team. She has been swimming for 10 years competitively and for fun. Let’s hear what she has to say. “I’d say practice behind the scenes is different from other sports. At our club team we have different groups to focus on certain specialties. I’m more of a sprinter and go into the fast pace kind of sets, whereas the mid distancers go into holding paces, and long distance swimmers swim more yardage with a faster pace.
We also do dryland for about an hour before the actual swimming trying to get our energy up, and then the practices themselves consist of 3 sets; warm up, pre set and main set. Overall I’d say our environment is very welcoming due to our coaches being somewhat closer to our age, which makes it super easy to talk to them for feedback as in swimming, or our bodies such as pains, strains etc.
They are coaches but also our friends which really makes it feel welcoming. And I would say that overall we are a pretty close group. We have team dinners or breakfast just us kids, and it makes us all enjoy the sport that much more, knowing we have each other to lean on. As far as pressure goes with balancing school and swimming, once again I am a teenage girl in high school and want to have a social life.
So, already having 5 APs and swim everyday after school plus Saturday mornings is a little difficult because I do have to keep up to date with school, and my grades and my assignments, while having a 3 hour practice after school, and making sure I regulate my sleep and nutrition, so im up and good for the next day of the same cycle.
When it comes to having a test, but also having to go to practice is one of the tougher moments of pressure to balance the two. There have been times where I haven’t done well on a test because I went to practice the day before and I didn’t have enough study time as a whole.
To answer your question about how balancing both affects my mental health, at this age it’s really hard to keep yourself in check, and make sure you perform your best, because there are times where life happens. There are just some days where you have no motivation, and it comes in waves, but I think what helps is having a good group of teammates, to lean on each other, and help each other to become more motivated.
Sometimes it’s just hard to control factors that contribute to your mental health, but I just try to start off my mornings with a healthy mindset to set the tone.”
Bella Ngyuen
Let’s hear what Bella Ngyuen, beach volleyball and indoor volleyball player, has to say. “Pressure to balance sports and school is a lot to carry. The pressure of having to perform well in my sport while also trying to have really good grades to show colleges, or parents, or coaches, I think it’s super draining, especially when you’re down in the dumps and cannot get better within sports.
It then causes stress which bundles up all while having to go home and do AP homework or even regular homework which takes forever while you’re in a really bad mood, affecting your health overall. The pressure can lean into how it affects me mentally.
Within my sports the behind the scenes is, waking up at 6AM to finish homework that I hadn’t finished the night before because of how tired I was. Then of course I head to school, and straight after I go to practice at the beach. It’s about a 2 and a half hour practice, and then after I start doing my homework, usually staying up til 12 almost every night studying or doing assignments.
Both the staying up late at night and the pressure from the two affects me mentally. Because of the lack of sleep and stressing 24/7 about things I need to get done, it reflects on how I act towards others. I tend to not be in the moment, in my own head thinking about tests, grades, performance, all of it.”
After seeing these three fellow Mustangs and their experiences with the double life, we can now get a better understanding of what our athletes go through. I hope that if you’re an athlete out there reading this, that it reminds you that you are not alone, and we are all in this together.
