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5 Tips to Manage Stress for Junior Athletes Juggling Sports and School
- LeRon Williams
- Mar 4
- 10 min read
Guest Blog Written by Ed Zeto, Director of Partnerships at Holston Academy
Let’s face it...
Student athletes are busy. Between practices and games nearly every day after school during the season, homework assignments and projects, studying for exams, and maybe even a part-time job, high school athletes barely have time to breathe, let alone find time to decompress and socialize. And while there are tons of benefits to playing school sports (team building, participation, school pride, and plenty of physical activity, just to name a few), interscholastic sports can also result in statistics such as this:
A 2023 survey revealed that approximately 91% of high school athletes experienced some level of stress due to their sport, with 58% reporting a moderate to an extreme amount of stress.*
Sometimes lost in the chase for athletic greatness, a college scholarship, and even a chance to compete at the highest level of sport is the mental well-being of the student-athlete. Sure, many athletes are resilient, tough, and strong of mind. But everyone has a limit…especially middle school and high school students. The problem is, a stigma associating athletes and mental health remains.
“Student athletes are meant to be pillars of strength within their schools and communities. Athletes are not usually encouraged to speak out about how taxing school can be on top of their daily athletic passions,” says Paul Niemand, former student athlete, veteran educator, and academic coach at Holston Academy, an accredited online school for 6-12th grade.
Given the precarious overall state of teen mental health today, it’s more important than ever for student athletes to find ways to manage stress. Here are five tips to help them juggle sports and school.
Time Management
While managing one’s time is easier said than done, there are many techniques available that can help student athletes prioritize their time and minimize stress.
Covey Quadrants: Each quadrant represents a particular mode–Crisis, Prevention, Distraction, and Slacker. “Some of us get stuck in Distraction or Slacker mode, which can lead us to operate more in Crisis mode instead of Prevention mode,” explains Rose Saluti, Outreach Coordinator for Beyond BookSmart (the largest executive function coaching company). “So we need to prioritize what we’re doing in terms of urgency and importance.” The idea is to avoid the Crisis quadrant if possible and try to operate in Prevention mode, which allows us to put the right amount of time and effort into what we’re doing. With this time, tasks can be accomplished before they enter Crisis mode and need to be completed urgently.
Budget vs. Actual (BVA): Rose notably points out that many people struggle with time management simply because they don’t know how long a particular task might take. And that results in not knowing the right amount of time to budget. One tip to deal with this issue is for students to create a chart that lists a variety of tasks, how long they think the task will take, and how long the task actually does take once it’s completed. In the last column, they would fill out why they thought the task took longer or not as long as they anticipated. The goal is to make people more aware of how time passes and how long tasks actually take. This knowledge can help students better budget their time for homework, studying, and other tasks.
Fast Break Plan: This activity uses a chart to break down tasks into smaller time increments while building in breaks. So, rather than stare at a chart that says “60 Minutes for Homework,” which can be very overwhelming for students, they can break everything down into smaller, more manageable tasks: Math Homework, 20 minutes; History Studying, 15 minutes; BREAK, 10 minutes; Science Homework, 15 minutes; Spanish Studying, 10 minutes.
Calendar Planning: Rose strongly recommends using any type of calendar to help with planning–whether it’s a paper calendar, Google Calendar, or iCal. Doing so allows students to visualize what their days look like, how they need to manage their time, and when they have free time.
Alerting Signals: Whether it’s an alarm, a Siri or Alexa reminder, or a written note, alerting signals are important when it comes to getting started on a task, refocusing, or transitioning from one task to another.
Chunking: For students struggling with organization and time management skills, chunking is an awesome–and simple–tool to use. Chunking involves breaking down larger lists into smaller, more specific lists of related items/topics. A major benefit for students, especially ones who might be struggling, is that chunking allows them to break things down into smaller, doable tasks.
By using one or more of these time management tools, student athletes can take control of their schedules and ensure every task is completed with minimal stress.
Set Realistic Goals
Many athletes, by nature, are high achievers. That often means they push themselves to lofty heights and set standards and goals that result in them pushing even harder. While that determination is certainly admirable, it can also lead to stress and burnout. The key is for high school athletes to set more realistic and attainable goals that set them up to work hard and strive for their best…but not to the brink of mental and physical exhaustion.
An effective method to setting realistic goals is to create SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-Bound) goals. You may have heard of SMART goals, as they’ve become a very popular and successful tool for people in all walks of life. The reason SMART goals are so well known is because they work. Here’s how high school athletes can set these goals.
Specific: Clearly defined goals will help student athletes know where to focus their efforts. Rather than setting a broad goal of “I want to run the 40-yard dash faster,” a student track athlete could narrow it to “I want to take 0.05 seconds off my 40-yard dash time by the start of spring track season.” Having a specific goal allows students to focus only on the training and techniques that will help them reduce their sprint time.
Measurable: Setting a specific goal makes it easy to measure. Using the 40-yard dash example, all a student athlete would need is a coach or teammate to time their run and use that measurable number to compare with past and future runs. A measurable goal gives student athletes a realistic number to aim for and increases their motivation to keep working toward it.
Attainable: Reaching for the stars isn’t a bad thing…but it also opens the door for disappointment. When a high school athlete sets a goal so lofty that it’s nearly impossible to attain, feelings of failure begin to creep in even though the goal was always going to be exceedingly difficult to achieve. By setting more attainable goals, student athletes can experience the rewarding feeling of accomplishing a goal and working toward the next one.
Realistic: Similar to attainability, the realism of a goal is also important. For example, if a student football player wants to try out for a position on the offensive line, their goal might be to gain 50 pounds of muscle in two months. Stepping back to look at the bigger picture, the athlete should ask themselves, “Is two months really enough time to gain that much muscle mass?” or “Do the weight room facilities I have access to allow me to take on that type of workout?” If there’s any uncertainty to the answer of these types of questions, odds are the goal isn’t realistic. However, a goal of “I want to increase my bench press weight by 10 pounds within a month” is likely more realistic and gives the student athlete a specific, measurable, and attainable goal to strive toward.
Time-Bound: An achievement date is key to setting any goal. Without it, motivation can fade over time. Depending on what the goal is (short-term vs. long-term), those goals can be broken into smaller steps along the way so a milestone is consistently being reached.
When setting SMART goals, student athletes must remember that it is also perfectly acceptable to adjust or pivot from a goal. In high school, life sometimes gets in the way--which can actually be a great thing. Students, just like adults, need time to step back, take a deep breath, and have a little bit of fun. As long as they’re making progress on their goals, they should enjoy their high school years. The goals will still be there waiting to be achieved.
Practice Positive Self-Talk, Mindfulness, and Meditation
Most sports set athletes up for failure. It’s how the athlete views and defines that failure that can drive them to greatness. Get seven out of 10 questions wrong on a quiz, the student receives a failing grade. But failing to get a hit seven out of 10 times in professional baseball might earn you a spot in the Hall of Fame. If a lawyer loses 60% of their cases, they likely won’t have a very lengthy law career. However, if a basketball player misses 60% of their three-point shots, they’re an All-Star. It’s all about how the student athlete puts failure into context.
The problem is, most high school athletes aren’t built to think that way. They want to get a hit every time up to bat, they want to hit 100% of their threes--even though it’s literally impossible to achieve these feats. The difference is, many higher-level athletes have played the games long enough to understand that failure is part of the sport and are aware of the context around failure in sports. And they know how to process their failures and still maintain positive mindsets.
Student athletes may need some help in that area, which is why incorporating these practices can help teens deal with what they perceive as failures and keep a strong frame of mind.
Positive Self-Talk: Everyone maintains a daily inner monologue. Especially athletes, who often use positive talk--when you speak to yourself in a motivational and inspiring way--to get themselves hyped up and focused on the task at hand. Consistently reinforcing yourself with positivity helps self-esteem and mental well-being.
Mindfulness: The overall concept of mindfulness and being fully in the present and in tune with mind and body is a bit vague, but it’s valuable in that it can help promote calmness and reduce stress. A couple of breathing exercises can help high school athletes achieve a state of mindfulness.
Five-finger breathing: Extend all five fingers on one hand, then breathe in and out, sliding the fingers of your other hand up and down each finger as you take a breath in and a breath out for each one. Do this until you’ve finished all five fingers. This will help regulate emotions and reduce anxiety.
Four-square breathing: Four-square breathing involves breathing in and holding the breath for four seconds, then exhaling. When done four times, this exercise can have a calming effect.
Meditation: This is an increasingly popular exercise among athletes. Why? Because meditation helps reduce their stress and anxiety, improve their focus and concentration, enhance mental clarity, and even manage pain and promote recovery. Meditating even 15 minutes a day can make a world of difference on the mindset of a high school athlete.
4. Prioritize Sleep
We’ve all had sleepless nights. And we all felt the results--mentally and physically--the following day. Lack of sleep leaves us devoid of energy and motivation, and slows our thought processes and reflexes. For athletes, sleep is especially precious, as it gives the body (and mind) the proper time to heal and rest so it’s refreshed and ready to take on the next day’s goals. Sleep must come before all else, and high school athletes should aim for between eight and 12 hours of restful sleep each night.
Create a Realistic Schedule
Schedules are one of the biggest stressors for high school athletes. The mere thought of trying to figure out where to fit schoolwork in between practices, games, workouts, socialization, and work is enough to significantly elevate teens’ anxiety levels.
Part of the problem is the rigid schedule of a traditional school day for a student athlete, which essentially consumes 10 straight hours, including after-school games or practices. Upon returning home, there’s dinner to eat, a shower to take, homework to complete, studying to do--and this isn’t even taking into account whether the student has a part-time job, plays a club or travel sport outside of school, and/or participates in any other extracurricular activities. With those factored in, finding time to do anything can be an intimidating prospect.
This is where using a calendar and planning skills can help make the day more manageable. When the student is at school, there’s not much flexibility there. However, when they get home, they can work on creating chunks of time to accomplish certain tasks.
By breaking each schedule variation into small time increments, the evenings become more manageable. It’s important to remember, however, that nothing is carved into stone--maintaining flexibility is always important.
Speaking of flexibility…what if there was an option that shaved an hour or two off the school day, opening that time for studying and homework? That, in turn, would free up more time in the evening. It’s possible thanks to online summer courses!
How Summer Online High School Courses Create Flexibility
Most online schools let students take classes at times that work best for them and their circumstances. Convenience and flexibility are two of the top reasons so many families are turning to online education--whether it’s full time or just a class or two. Online summer learning provides students with some extra room to breathe--and that time is absolutely invaluable for busy student athletes because it gives them the chance to unwind and relax, without sacrificing their education or sports. Student athletes (and all students) need that time every day to simply be a kid and have fun. And that certainly offers a boost to their mental health.
An online summer course or two frees up the perfect amount of time for high school students to be…high school students…as they continue their education uninterrupted and still have plenty of time to dedicate to their sport. Holston Academy’s online summer high school classes are an excellent way to free up some time in the student athlete’s busy schedule, minimize their stress, and even get a jump on college prep before they ever step foot on a campus. View our course catalog to see our 300-plus offerings, and call Holston Academy at (833) 782-6922 for more information.
About the Author: Ed Zeto is the Director of Partnerships at Holston Academy. During his career, Ed has formed academic partnerships with more than 200 high performance sports academies, tutoring centers, performing arts schools, as well as private and independent schools, both in the US and internationally. Ed invests maximum effort to ensure that the academic partnerships he forms with these organizations are of the utmost benefit for the students, their families, and the partnering organization. Ed is passionate about learning the needs of the students, which allows him to design a multi-layered, customized support structure for the partnering organization, ensuring that every student enrolled through the Partnership program enjoys the fulfilling and impactful academic experience that they so richly deserve. If you’re interested in taking a summer course with Holston Academy, please reach out to Ed at Partnerships@HolstonAcademy.org or 661-578-6397.
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