Being on a sports team and going to school can feel like working a full 9-5 job. At Green Level, most of our school’s students play a sport, most often at the school or recreational team. Having to balance school work and practice can be taxing on a young adult. Balance is important, but can sometimes be thrown off when a student faces a difficulty or obstacle in their life, especially one that has to do with something they’re passionate about. For a lot of students, this is their extracurriculars, more specifically their sports.
How do students at Green Level cope with game losses?
Coaches all play a large role in motivating students and keeping their energy up. When asked how to address a team after a tough loss, Coach Woolf, head football coach, responded with, “Talk about the positives that we saw, the fight that they had, and how competitive they were.” He also stated that team meetings and individual talks play a role, “With understanding what they [the players] need to work on, and what they [the players] need to do versus the next opponent.” He explained that “Mental toughness is huge, and that could be after wins too, How do you go to the next opponent?, because that’s what’s next and you can’t worry about what’s happened, good or bad.” He also called out “Last Friday night [football game], made some kids step up…” who were called on for some certain circumstances, “…and you can see the growth in some of our players, and we had a lead throughout the game.”
Also interviewing our school’s counselor, Mrs.Simpson, she stated that when students come to her with mental needs, “we utilize talking it out, one-on-one sessions, group sessions where some of the same students who have the same sort of…needs. Like last year we had a negative thinking group for students who were very hard on themselves.” When student-athletes come to her for help she states that “for academics, we utilize time management and really thinking about our day into different lengths of time [7 hours for school, __ hours for practice, etc.] and where can I fit in my other extracurriculars or other responsibilities.” For mental health issues, they talk about, “What’s the root of it?… How can we move forward and use that as a catalyst for change?”
Many people are available to support student-athletes after a game loss. Both coaches and counselors like Woolf and Simpson play large roles in uplifting players and helping them bounce back to play even better next time. Balancing out a game and school plus homework can be really difficult, but with adequate support from our admin, our athletes are able to be team players and support themselves when they need to.
