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Does School put too Much Stress on Student Athletes?

Matthew Bonner, writers • April 27, 2026

Picture of Northeastern University’s Hockey rink (Matt Bonner)

Student athletes now have more stress than ever before which can “cause future problems such as anxiety and depression”
This graph shows a survey of students who feel/felt stress during their sport season in school, 91% say they feel/felt stressed, while only 9% say they didn’t

“It’s difficult to keep track of school work with having more responsibilities because you’re going to practice and games and lifts while balancing school work.” Jared Malkin, Senior at Hall
Many students in high school who play sports find themselves struggling with the stress of school and the pressure to perform on the field. This causes problems like loss of sleep, mental problems, and much more. A study done by the National Library of Medicine found that out of a poll of 200 student athletes, 91% of those surveyed felt as if they had too much stress when it comes to this balancing between school and a sport.
A suggestion by student Tyler Rudnick a senior athlete at hall said that teachers should “give less work or make
the work still beneficial but not as time consuming in some ways so you’re still getting the benefits of doing the work but also being able then to do your sports to the best of your capacity.”
This constant weighing of the two can causes loss of sleep for athletes as many have to complete their homework late at night after practices or games. This need for sleep was addressed by the Positive Coaching Alliance, where they said “your body and mind need eight to 10 hours of sleep to function at their best.” Following this they gave some ways to achieve this: Set a bedtime, put your devices away, and silence notifications.
To follow this many athletes also struggle with anxiety. Stress from a game, or maybe its a test/exam coming up. Mental health especially in athletes is important to take note of. Many athletes fall down to bad self talk which can further harm one's mental, and lead to worse performance on the field and in the classroom.
Picture of a student trying to figure out a balance between his/her game and practice schedule with school work (Matt Bonner)

Many student athletes fall into the same struggle. Being able to balance their grades while playing their sport. This contrast always seems to leave one behind, the more you focus on your sport, the more your grades slip, and vise versa. A lot of this reason comes from time, we only have so much time to get our work done in school which causes a conflict outside of school in which we have practices and games which take up almost all of our day outside of school. Student athlete Tyler Rudnick said this "I sometimes have trouble doing work because I don't have time to do it.”
Ward, Tavish, et al. “Prevalence of Stress amongst High School Athletes (V2).” Health Psychology Research, vol. 11, no. 70167, 21 Feb. 2023, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9946800/#:~:text=This%20study%20found%20that%20around, https://doi.org/10.52965/001c.70167.

https://www.facebook.com/PositiveCoachUS. “Mental Health Tips for High School Athletes - Positive Coaching Alliance.” Positive Coaching Alliance, 2024, positivecoach.org/resource-zone/mental-health-tips-for-high-school-athletes/.

Ward, Tavish, et al. “Prevalence of Stress amongst High School Athletes (V2).” Health Psychology Research, vol. 11, no. 70167, 21 Feb. 2023, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9946800/#:~:text=This%20study%20found%20that%20around, https://doi.org/10.52965/001c.70167.

Hall Record

Does School put too Much Stress on Student Athletes?

Hall Record

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