For many students, testing is a piece of cake or a common stressor. For CIF students, it’s even more stressful because it acts as a high-stakes evaluation that can dictate team selection, future opportunities, and performance reputation. 

Stress is the body’s response to pressure, and can be triggered by unexpected experiences or feeling overwhelmed.

While it can be easy to overlook and minimize the stress of a high school athlete, doing so may cause future problems like anxiety and depression. Both of which have been steadily increasing in the same situation. Approximately 57 percent of high school students participate in at least one sport.

Most sports require an intense amount of training and physical exertion, and can be physically draining for athletes. Nevertheless, it seems that athletes experience more frequent mental health issues than many people acknowledge. 

Although a limited amount of stress can be helpful, an excessive amount can be a catalyst for adverse physiological effects. Examples of this are depression and anxiety, where symptoms of stress often include increased heart rate.

Oftentimes, athletes set high standards, and tests trigger performance anxiety. For many athletes, it can be a struggle balancing both academics and sports. 

Athletes often have trouble addressing their mental health difficulties, with a study revealing that only 10 percent of college athletes experiencing mental health problems attempt to receive help. On a Likert scale, respondents rated their stress on a scale of one to five, with approximately 91 percent of the cohort reporting experiencing some level of stress due to playing a sport. About a third of the cohort (34 percent)  reported stress positively affecting performance, while around a quarter (25.5 percent) reported stress negatively affecting performance.

While it can be easy for these student athletes to stay physically fit, it can be difficult for them to stay mentally fit. Student athletes often push themselves to their limit, as they have a mindset of more pain than gain.

This is because even at a young age, there is so much pressure on them to perform, so they feel like they have to keep pushing themselves, as stated before. It is said that student athletes experience much more of a much higher level of stress than non athletic student individuals, as there have been many comparisons between non-athletic students and athletic students. 

This is because while they may benefit from physical activity to manage stress, they often face unique pressures. This includes injury concerns, public scrutiny, and time constraints.

One of the biggest differences between athletes and non-athletes in terms of stress is the amount of responsibilities they have. From being in constant worry of getting better, being in shape, and staying consistent, all while trying to keep their grades up in order to stay in the sport they’re in, athletes have a lot of balancing to do.