It’s no secret that today’s high school students are stressed out ninety-nine percent of the time. Most people attribute this to the intense workload and emotional burdens constantly worrying high schoolers. These factors certainly do cause anxiety in most students, but they are not the only factors. Sports are hailed as a savior: the one stress-free environment where kids can be truly happy. But that’s not always quite the case.
Nearly every varsity sport has practice and/or games at least five days a week, and in many cases, the penalty for being unable to attend three or more practices -- not including emergency circumstances -- is expulsion from the team. Obviously, commitment to the team is important, but what happens when that same commitment gets in the way of other commitments?
According to a poll conducted by the NHS Hilltopper’s Instagram, 62% of students report that high school sports stress them out and take away from other commitments such as family events or a sibling’s graduation. Olivia Golhar, for example, enjoyed having cross country every day. The commitment was a problem, however: “It was fun because I liked the sport, but I wasn’t allowed to miss it for prior commitments.”
Julia Rowe agrees, saying, “I love swimming but committing to practicing so many days a week can be tiring. It can take away from time I spend on other things I'm passionate about, like music, and it can make it hard to get homework done. Sometimes you have to make decisions between two interests, like once I had to choose between a swim practice right before a championship and a band concert that impacted my grade.”
This emphasis on sports over everything else, including family, academics, other extracurriculars, and valuable social experiences, is detrimental to students. It teaches them that there is only one option: sports. There is no lesson on how to balance having different interests; if you want to be physically active, that is all you can want.
Two freshman volleyball players, who agreed that while they love their sport and found volleyball to be a positive environment, they wouldn’t have enjoyed it if it were any other sport. “If I had played another sport, I never would have wanted to be there, but I always liked being at volleyball,” says one. These students loved volleyball, which they had never played before, so much so that they both (along with many other people on the team) ended up joining club teams after the season ended. One can’t help but wonder at the contrast between volleyball and the other teams.
Alex Goodale, a senior soccer player, admits to being burnt out and frankly disliking her sport. “After playing club soccer since 5th grade and four years of the super stressful environment of the high school team, I was more than ready for the season to be over. It’s actually kind of sad to think I devoted my middle and high school years to soccer only to come away never wanting to play again. I used to love soccer but now that passion has completely disappeared, and had the environment of the high school program been more positive, I would definitely feel differently.”
Emma Zhang, another swimmer, feels similarly about the stress of swim practice: “It’s still fun and I enjoy doing it, but it was starting to feel more like a chore than like an activity that I actually enjoy.”
For a high school extracurricular to cause someone to lose their passion for something is a huge issue. High school should be a time to discover and pursue passions, not to lose them.
One field hockey player admitted that though she didn’t feel a lot of stress, the shifting practice times and consequences for being late (everyone running sprints) made getting there a source of some anxiety.
Simon Shoemaker, who played freshman soccer this year, says: “Having to go every day of the week, including half days, was stressful. And even if it were three or four days a week, it would have been fine, but five was just too much.”
Although senior Maggie Rosenberg loves gymnastics, she says, “Certain sports definitely take it to an extreme. High school gymnastics has gotten in the way of family things and prior commitments at times.” This is certainly true, because while high school gymnastics is overall an incredibly positive experience, there is still a six day commitment. There are two meets over Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, which is hugely problematic in a number of ways.
Now, this isn’t to say that sports are the only problem, and there are certainly students who love doing their sport every single day without fail. The problem is that many students want to do a sport they love and be on a team, but they cannot for fear of stress. Or, when they do, it is no longer a fun activity, but another thing they must do. Sports should not prevent students from finishing their homework or force them to stay up late. Athletics should be an outlet, not a stressor, so let’s all work together to make varsity sports fun.
Needham High School students are so lucky to have access to so many different extracurricular opportunities. However, the overcommitment in athletics can lead to stress and prevent students from being well-rounded. Portrait of a Needham Graduate should not be someone swamped by sports.