Playing a sport in college is what every athlete wants, that is the dream. Many do not realize the downside of playing a sport at the collegiate level. The downside is the mental side of it. When playing a sport in college, you are under a lot of pressure to do well. That pressure can be from coaches, parents, teammates, or family and it can break you. The self-doubt that makes an athlete feel like everything they do is wrong. That is the tough side of sports that many non-athletes do not realize. 

The second part that affects a player’s mental side is stress. That stress comes from a lot of places as a student athlete. One place it comes from is the school work and the other is from the sport itself. Student athletes balance their academics, sports, and sometimes a job or taking care of a sibling. With that many people relying on you, your stress levels will rise. There have been experiments to test the mental health levels of athletes and although more need to be conducted, most have shown that student-athletes have a high level of mental health issues.

According to the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletics Association), 56 % of student-athletes know how to deal with mental health issues and can direct teammates to professional help. In addition,  47% of student-athletes said they would feel comfortable seeking out professional help for themselves. The numbers are there to prove that there are mental health issues among students, especially student-athletes. This is certainly an issue that warrants the attention of all – student athletes, coaches, faculty and parents.