The Impact of No High School Sports on Juniors

High school is an important time for athletes. Many have spent years honing their skills and want to make sure they are seen by college coaches and recruiters. Junior year is an especially crucial time.

There’s no sports right now in high school because of COVID-19. What is happening right now for juniors? How do they deal with not being able to showcase their talent?

Years spent honing their skills

Young athletes spend years building their skills. By 11 or 12 years of age they specialize and focus on one sport. They put a lot of time, energy and money into a single sport in the pursuit of glory.

For some athletes glory means getting a college scholarship while for others it means playing professional sports. All student athletes have a goal in mind, and they start working towards it starting at a young age. By the time an athlete gets to high school they are in the final stages of planning for their future. As a freshman in high school they learn how to transition their sport skills onto the high school stage. Sophomores continue to build in preparation for their junior year so that college or professional coaches can see the best of them. It’s a critical time.

What are juniors going through?

There have been no competitive high school sports since last spring, and we don’t know when they will return. What does this mean for high school athletes and especially for juniors?

My clients who were juniors last year didn’t get seen by college coaches and recruiters. They probably won’t get seen this year either. One of my basketball players had a goal of playing for a D1 college. College coaches have told him that they won’t give him a college scholarship without ‘being seen.’ He can’t be seen because of coronavirus.

This client and most others have their own college recruiting pages. The pages include a video reel of their best performances, but that’s not enough. College and professional coaches want to be able to see and evaluate student athletes during live competition. They won’t settle for seeing athletes during practice.

What’s the impact?

When you’ve worked hard your entire young life toward a single goal and the attainment of that goal feels hopeless, the impact is huge. Some student athletes are feeling anxious and depressed and rightfully so. We forget that this isn’t like completing four years of college to get your dream job. For most high school athletes this is 10+ years of working towards one goal -more than the number of years most of them have been alive. I often talk about this in terms of it being a part-time job because that’s exactly what it is.

Besides anxiety and depression, this impacts the athlete’s sense of self. Who am I? What will I do if I can’t play my sport? When a young athlete has been training and planning for more years than they’ve been alive the impact can be devastating.

How can juniors deal with this situation?

It’s so important that athletes learn to accept what’s happening. They don’t have control over what’s happening in the world. I encourage my clients to work on letting go of attachment to what they thought was going to happen.

Make a new plan. What can you continue to work on? What can you do? What’s in your control now? Who do you want to be? What do you want to do?

I also think it’s important to work on developing a relationship with other things in your life that are important to you. Balance has always been SO critical, but it’s even more critical now. Being one-dimensional (having your identity attached to one thing) is not going to maintain your confidence or keep you motivated nor will it help you keep moving forward.

Tips for moving forward

Yes, if you are a junior or senior athlete in high school, it probably feels like there are a lot of negatives right now. I understand but focusing on them is not going to keep you moving forward.

You’ve spent a lifetime preparing for this moment, and now your goal may seem very far away. You may be feeling anxious and depressed because this is the last chance to showcase yourself, and you can’t. What will the future hold?

I don’t know what the future will hold, but you still have control. Accept this for what it is – a blip. Figure out the known entities, and make a plan for what you can do (versus what you can’t). Find some new things to be passionate about. There are so many things out there but because you’ve spent your entire life doing this one thing, you haven’t had the opportunity to do any of them. Take that opportunity now.