Garbutt Shanice Garbutt Professor Mary Stressors That ...

Shanice Garbutt Professor Mary Rhet:101 10/10/18 Word count:

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Stressors That Causes Student Athletes to Fail I am interested in this topic because I am a student athlete, and I think that being a student athlete in college puts a lot of stress on us as students because we are always trying to manage our time with practice, school, and even trying to find time to finish up some school work. I feel like this is a great topic to discuss because not many people really understand how much work we put in as students, but after this hopefully, you will. Coming into college should not be much of a surprise to us as students because we all know that it is going to be a very big difference from high school but coming to college as a student athlete there is a lot that will be expected from you. Because not only do you represent yourself as student athlete, but you are also expected to do well in school and perform well. You are always pushing yourself to do your best, and I feel like, that is what intimidates us the most as being college students. We know that the classes are going to be a lot bigger and the teachers are going to be a lot more strict, but it is something that we all just have to learn how to adjust to. However, being in college is not so bad when you are involved in something. This is because it makes things a little bit easier for you; you will always have someone to help you out and support you but at the same time there is more expected out of you as a student. College athletes are typically under more stress than a general student would face, and that is why student athletes can be at a higher risk of anxiety and depression.

Being a student athlete, we tend to put a lot of stress on ourselves because we often pressure ourselves to perform our best in our sport and in school because we do not want to disappoint our coaches or even lose our scholarship. It means a lot to us to be able to go to school for something we love doing, but as an athlete, we are always pressured to do our best accademily. __According to the NCAA Manual if student athlete does not maintain at least a _3.0_GPA than they will not be allowed to compete. As an athlete you have to be eligible to compete in your sport and without good grades you are not able to compete or play with your team, and that really puts a lot on you as an athlete because you want to do your best in school so that you can be able to do what you love.

Not only do athletes come to school for their athletics but most athletes really come to school for their education, but sometimes it feels like the sport becomes more important than school do, mostly because it seems like being a student athlete you never really have much time to yourself because you are always in practice or even trying to finish up school work if you manage to do so. Athletes typically have less time in their day to deal with the average problems of being a student. Time management is extremely important to us as student athletes, but it is difficult for us to manage because we always have such a busy schedule and work around our schedule and that is what really causes athletes to slip up with grades. This shows how pathos is being represented in this sentence because it shows how student athletes feel when it come to their grade and sport.

Athletes tend to even lose focus for why they come to school in the first place because they get so distracted with all the things that are going on around them, they are to busy trying to figure out what is more important to them school or their sport. In reality, both are important they just cannot see it because, most of the time to them if they are not doing well in their sport

then they consider themselves a failure. And if they are not doing well in school they are also a failure. That is where more stress comes in, and it should not be that way because stress is what causes athletes to perform poorly and not at their best potential. A professor at UCLA believes that student athletes tend to play second fiddle when it comes to their academics because they always want to put their sport first (Oppenheimer). That may be true for some but not for many because most student athletes do care about their grades more but it is really hard for them to maintain. A student from Mississippi state university points out how student athletes are always in practice for so long that they never have time to themselves to get school work done or even just hang out with friends for the time being. According to Jake News, "Most college athletes spend as much or more time in sports during the off season as they do during the season, leaving them a little time for common college student activities like studying, internships and part-time jobs" (Athlete Network). This is very true because most of our time is taken up by our sport, Coaches really don't realize that most student athletes don't really have much of a social life or do not really get to do things that they will like to because we devote so much of our time to our sport. Rachel Scott from a News article also points out that more than 60 percent of pac 12 athletes said "they would like to see voluntary activities become "truly voluntary," giving them more time of their day for school work and studying" (Inside Higher Ed).

Most people don't realize that students who participate in a college sport have the potential to be at a greater risk for depression, anxiety, and other mental issues. Student athletes practice and compete as a team and individually to succeed at their sport. Successful athletes know that their game or meet can only be as good as their attitude, focus and desire to win (Kozlowski). This shows how much time and effort student athletes put in their sport, that they are willing to put themselves under so much stress because they want to be as good as possible in

their sport, and that really shows a lot of integrity as an athlete. In addition to the normal developmental challenges that all college students tend to face, student athletes tend to face more pressure because of the commitment and participation level that college athletics demand. They expect so much out of us as an athlete but don't realize that we do have other priorities to worried about rather than just being an athlete. Yes student athletes love what they do and that's why they do it but when it starts to become more than just a sport that's when it starts to become a little overbearing for some, because they want to be good at what they do but when they have to devote so much of their time to the sport, some don't even want to do it anymore because they can't spend their time doing other things they like to do with their day other than there sport.

It is very difficult for student athletes to keep up with their academic performance. In this article David Oppenheimer states that, "Big time college sports really force students to strive in the sport, where athletes won't be able to manage their time to study especially when the excessive training continue to happen" (Oppenheimer). Coaches sometimes don't realize that they can physically and mentally over work an athlete to the point where they are always tired and can't focus in classes. This can really affect a student athlete, success in academics and athletics. As a student athlete your time is a very big priority of your day because you really have to stay on top of everything with practice, school and meetings with the academic staff advisors it's a lot that a student athlete has to keep up with. Not saying that any other college students don't have a lot on their plate but, athletes go through a lot throughout their day. As a student athletes you also tend to miss class most of the time because of your practice and competitions schedule could interfere with attending class or doing homework. So most student athletes cram and stay up really late at night to finish school work that has to be turned in by the end of the week. Because it's not really easy for some athletes to get work done when traveling with their

team. One source of pressure for student athletes is how they may prioritize their role and identity. "As they are referred, they are students first and athletes second" (Kozlowski). It is a lot of things that can really put a college athlete under stress, there are many college athletes who can really relate with each other on many things no matter what sport you play, because they all go through the same thing school and practice. Most student athletes even have practice twice a day, and that can really take up their time to do something more important like school work.

Being in college is not as easy as people think but being in college as a student athlete is most definitely not easy. It would be if students really learn how to manage their time and use every single minute of their day wisely. Being in college as a D1 athlete comes with a lot of priorities as an athlete you have to really make sure that you come in prepared and ready not just for your sport, but more importantly school. Student athletes go through so much with trying to stay on top of their school work and giving their full effort in everything they do weather it's with school or being at the top with their sport. People should really try to cut some athletes some slack because they really go through a lot trying to stay eligible for their sport and in school most student athletes want to great at everything they do but it really takes a lot out of them to stay on top of their game. Friends, family, coaches and even professors may not know how much a stress a student athlete could be under some people could be so oblivious to what is really going on. Most people might think that being an athlete is easy because some athletes might make it look that way, but in reality it is not it's all about the way you go about it as a person.

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