Teen athletes face unique challenges as they navigate their sports while also having to balance their grades. Amidst their pursuit of academic success and athletic success, sadly they push their mental health to the side.

A defining characteristic in teen athletes is their pressure to excel in various parts of their lives. When the season comes around the athletes main goal is to continue to excel in their sport. While athletic success is an accomplishment on its own, it leaves the schoolwork aspect in the dark.

An anonymous All Saints softball player expresses how “Balancing school and sports is really hard, especially when I am being pushed to be the best.” Putting that kind of pressure on students whose brains aren’t even fully developed definitely takes a toll on their mental health.

While the struggle of balancing athletics and academics is going on, there is also the concern of how coaches are treating players. 3 anonymous All Saints athletes said that their coach has ruined their sport for them in many ways. One of these athletes detailed how “All my coach did was degrade me, he never gave me any insight on ways I could improve. It was just constant degradation until I felt like I wasn’t good enough to be playing anymore”

Why should coaches be allowed to treat their athletes like this? That is a question among many athletes and parents. The National Federation of State High School Associations details that many coaches talk to their athletes with a “win now” attitude rather than actually helping them out.

A study done by the National Athletic Trainers Associations found that student athletes struggle with their mental health more than non-athlete adolescents. Where these athletes typically go to get rid of their stress and feelings, is where more stress is coming from. Why are athlete safe spaces being turned into toxic environments that punish athletes for failure instead of giving them more insight?

Texas has over 800,000 student athletes, and three of the athletes I interviewed said that they did not feel like they had the resources to talk to someone. Two of those three said that even if they did have someone to talk to, they would not have because of the fear or judgment of opening up to a stranger.

Instead of stigmatizing teen athlete mental health, we should give them support systems to talk through their issues. If teens athletes were given more support and resources, we could stop having to hear about the tragic deaths of athletes who could not handle the negative coaching, the push for academic success, and the push for athletic success.

If we as a community can come together and push for more resources for athletes, and not let coaches continue to treat athletes like trash on the floor, we may be able to cut the teen athlete anxiety rates in half. And maybe even eventually, athletes will finally feel comfortable enough to talk to someone about their struggles.