A conversation with a Division 1 track and cross-country athlete surrounding the added anxieties of college athletics.
In order to understand the added anxieties that many college students are under, I decided to have a conversation with Ford McCoy, D1 student athlete at Wofford College. Ford McCoy (pictured below) is a current senior studying Biology who runs for Wofford's cross country team in the fall semester, and the track team in the spring semester for the Southern Conference. The events that he is most noted for running are the 8k in cross country, equivalent to roughly 5 miles, and the 800 meter in track. He has set a school record for his participation in a 4 x 800m relay team, he has made academic honor roll every season, and he was named to the Southern Conference All-Freshman Team in 2017. Needless to say, this commitment to his education, as well as to his sport, have led to increased anxieties that other students may never experience. As a result, self-care is especially pertinent in maintaining peak physical and mental health.
Many of the stressors that McCoy discussed facing with me seemed fairly standard of any college student in the past year. He mentioned the struggle of online school, made necessary by the threat of Covid, stress to perform well academically, the stressors of being healthy, and of maintaining friendships. These are all amplified, however, by his role as a collegiate athlete. Rather than simply being displaced from school in the spring of 2020, he also had to face the struggle of losing a season, missing months of practice and conditioning, and the threat of potentially never competing at the collegiate level again. The threat to perform stretches beyond the breadth of academic pressure. In addition to feeling the need to achieve high marks in classes, there is also the anxiety to perform well at meets, during practices, and at conference. Likewise, friendships feel the additional strain of long weekends away from the college, early morning practices, and meetings that interfere with potential meal times with peers. Many of these factors combine to create individuals who experience extreme levels of stress and anxiety on a daily basis, yet are expected to behave and perform at a similar standard to their peers who may not be.
In an effort to combat this, McCoy enrolled in Dr. Dorroll's Caring for the Self seminar offered the fall of 2020. This class allowed healthy outlets that McCoy described as an opportunity for growth and expansion of comfort zones. One of the activities that he noted was particularly new for him was coloring. Working out of a coloring book is something few college seniors take the time to do, but McCoy commented on the therapeutic nature of taking a moment to relax and focus on a creative outlet. While running has always been an opportunity to showcase his talents, McCoy also commented how he is now relying more on unsupervised running as a method of self-care. These recovery runs have no set pace or distance, and serve as a form of physical healing to the rigorous practices, as well as mental healing, in the sense that he has the opportunity to meditate on these solo runs. He has also experimented with an even slower pace, choosing to walk in nature.
More than showing him outlets to engage with self-care, this seminar also demonstrated to McCoy why this self-care is necessary and the historical and religious context of caring for oneself. The practice of self-care was ingrained into the curriculum and practices throughout the class. McCoy commented on many of the points I highlighted about my experience in this course. One of these, is the way the class deviates from many high-stress courses at the college level by enabling student decision making. He liked that students could make more conscious efforts to limit their work intensity by focusing on the assignments they felt were within their ability to complete. He knew if there times he had a meet that weekend, he might not be able to complete the same workload as more open weeks in the season .
“Self-care was integrated into the syllabus."
When asked how he felt colleges could offer better resources to promote health and wellbeing of student athletes, Ford had one major suggestion. He felt something that was essential, and somewhat lacking, was better nutritional resources. Attending a relatively small private college means that the options for food are often limited to appease the masses. These masses prefer the calorie filled, albeit quite delicious, cheese pizza in the dining hall, pictured below, to a quinoa power bowl. However, this compromise means that many student athletes feel their bodies are being insufficiently fueled for the amount of physical exertion they face on a daily basis.
While this conversation made me more aware of many of the struggles athletes face, it does nothing to address the other myriad of stressors that students face in addition to academics. This includes but is not limited to, working part-time, being a parent or guardian, family illness, poverty, issues of mental and physical health, and issues of racial, sexual, or gender discrimination. I feel that in turn, colleges, faculty, staff, and students, should make more conscious efforts to offer resources and support to individuals with added difficulties to their academic success. Promoting self-care in academia is merely one means to do that.
Sources and Additional Links:
Dr. Dorroll's Blog
American Psychological Association Self-Care Resources
NCAA Mental Health Educational Resources
Southern Conference
All athletic pictures credit to Mark Olencki at Wofford College