By: Rapi Satoa
Mental health issues have been a concern lately with student athletes. Student-Athletes go through plenty of difficulties during the day whether it is mentally, physically, or emotionally.
Student-Athletes have been at risk with mental health issues. Some of the most common mental issues that student-athletes deal with are anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and depression. As a student-athlete myself I have dealt with some mental health issues. One of them being anxiety. I feel as if I had to be worried about everything in my life as a student-athlete. There are many factors that go into my anxiety with playing football. One of them being is worrying whether I get playing time or if I am going to be replaced at any given moment. During my years of playing college football, I have seen guys get replaced the next day after a bad practice.
After a bad practice individually, coaches automatically replace you with the next man up. I worry so much about being perfect with my technique and play calls that it affects my performance on the field. When I have a bad performance on the field during game day, I would not be able to sleep at night. Just the thought of me not performing at the level that I know I can frustrate me the most because I feel like I let the whole team down and my coaches. The people that put their trust in me to do a job successfully. Which brings me to another one of my mental issues, which is mood disorder. There would be some days or weeks where I would completely shut down because I just felt so overwhelmed and exhausted with balancing school and football at the same time. I remember my sophomore year of playing college football that I would just feel depressed during the week or after a loss after a game and feel so frustrated. I felt like I was experiencing those feelings because I got less playing time than expected, less sleep, and some days I would not eat at all. All I could do about it was pray and talk to my family. I believe by doing that was what helped me get past all these problems.
I interviewed another student-athlete that I know, which is my brother Pulefano Sotoa. I asked him some questions about mental health as he began his college football career in July. Pulefano plays at Mesabi Range College in Virginia, Minnesota and is currently a freshman.
One of the questions I asked Pulefano was “How does it feel to be a redshirt coming into college football, knowing that you would have to sit out?” (Redshirting takes a toll on players mentally and physically)
Pulefano replied “It is a frustrating process; I know that the coaches wanted me to use this year to get bigger, stronger, and faster, but I really wanted to play this year. After COVID happened, I lost a whole year to play football and I used that year to do all the things the coaches have asked me to do. So, it is frustrating waiting out another year because it makes me feel like I wasted my time training just to ride the bench for another whole year.”
The next question I asked is “Do you ever feel frustrated balancing school and football?”
Pulefano said “I feel frustrated all the time. Some days I work so hard in practice and don’t get the results I wanted as in playing time. I get so frustrated with that, that I start to ignore my assignments and what not because I feel like if I do not make it in football, I am just worthless. That’s just how I feel. If I can’t succeed on the field what makes me think I can do that in the classroom.”
The last question I asked is “How do you think you can help yourself battle your mental health issues?”
Pulefano replied “All I can do is pray about it and talk to people that can help me. You’re my big brother so knowing that you are going through the same things as me or have been through it and seeing you still fighting makes me want to fight even harder.”
Here are some helpful ways for student-athletes to overcome their mental health issues. One way to help yourself is to talk to someone you either trust or even an advisor, counselor, or therapist. I find this method very helpful in my experience. Another way to help yourself is to focus on one thing at a time. If you are worrying about practice while being in a biology class, then it wouldn’t do you any good. One method that my brother Pulefano suggested was meditating. Meditating helps increase self-awareness, patience, and reduces negative emotions. This last method has helped me a lot and it is managing my time wisely. I feel like if I get work done as soon as I can, I can just sit back and relax which reduces me stress tremendously. If you are a student-athlete going through a time please talk to someone or you can even reach out to somebody at your school, and I am sure they are willing to help you in any way possible. Keep fighting!
