How School Sports Shutdown Affect Students’ Mental Health

The pandemic cut athletic seasons short and cancelled practices. Now parents and coaches are seeing changes in student athletes’ mental health.

In the spring of 2020, the coronavirus swept across the country and put a halt to sports across the United States. There was no shortage of stories written about the risks of continuing youth sports in the fall. The risks were a big concern, but what about the risks of not playing?

A Professional Outlook

“You have to kind of assess what the identifiable risks are when it comes to sports participation and compare that with the benefits and risks are to not participating,” said Dr. Kip Matthews, a sports psychologist in Athens, Georgia. He has witnessed young athletes’ mental health deteriorate while their sports were on hiatus. His office has seen an influx in visits since the pandemic began and kids were forced to stay home.

“While we’ve always been busy, there’s been greater requests for services from surrounding communities, not just for our office, but mental health services in general,” Dr. Matthews said. “When this first started out and everything was shut down, youth sports participants, what we saw there were actually several studies done we actually saw a dramatic increase in the levels of reported depression among those reported athletes that it jumped up to somewhere in the range of 40%.”

The School’s Perspective

Administrators with Clarke County School District also agree that sports play a huge factor in a student’s mental health. Last year, many seniors had their careers come to a sudden end. This season, seniors will be able to get the experience that others were not able to have. Clarke County’s Athletic Director gave his thoughts on what sports mean to his athletes.

“My youngest was a senior last year, knowing that these seniors are going to get some type of closure, and then come back into the building and, you know, it is kind of to have that sense of the last few days of your high school experience together, to have a graduation, I think that’s important,” says Dr. Jon Ward, athletic director of Clarke Central High School. His son was a multi sport athlete in high school, and he is now on a football scholarship at the University of Southern California.

“My son played baseball for us. So you know he had played all of his life and, you know, senior season,” said Dr. Ward. “He also played football and basketball so he was able to complete those seasons but you know it was as athletic director I really was sad for all of our teams, and then as a father I was sad that a sport that you play all your life that comes to a screeching halt.”

The Student Perspective

Students are aware of the effect not playing sports had on their mental health. Julianna Walker is an eighth grader in the Oconee School System. She runs track and was very disappointed when her season was cancelled last year.

“I was a little upset because we had three meets scheduled the next week, when school was canceled for the two weeks and then the rest of the school year. So, a little frustrating, but there’s nothing we could do about it,” said Walker.

Her mother, Dr. Jennifer Walker, would go a step further when talking about how the pandemic affected Julianna. As the pandemic continued on, Dr. Walker noticed some changes in her daughter’s personality.

“Yes, because I saw that when we shut everything down last March, particularly my eighth grader. She keeps saying ‘Don’t say this mom,’ but I really did think she was in danger of being in depression, and she didn’t engage with us,” says Dr. Walker. Along with helping students’ mental health, athletics helps physicality as well, and gives students a chance to learn teamwork. I asked Dr. Walker’s other daughter, Mary Beth, how she thinks playing volleyball and other sports helps her in the world.

“I would say physically and mentally. Because like physically you’re in shape so we’re not as we don’t get as tired, we’re so we’re fit, but mentally also because I feel like when we have a team that has worked together and like that can help us in the future, and it can help us in our classrooms to work together as a class or a school instead of just trying to do it all on our own,” said Mary Beth Walker.