La Vista takes a look at the Families Connected Speakers Series, which was hosted in the Costa auditorium and discussed stress for student-athletes.
By: Karli Wallace/ Executive Theme Editor, Kimi Danaei/ Theme editor and Illustrator, Drew Rohm/ Photo Editor
Speakers from the Positive Coaching Alliance and Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles joined a panel on Oct. 3 in the Costa auditorium to speak about athletic stress and methods of balancing their athletic careers with their academic ones.
Speakers such as collegiate football coach Norm Chow, professional beach volleyball player Casey Jennings, former UCLA gymnastics coach Valorie Kondos Field and former collegiate basketball player Mikah Maly-Karros were featured on the panel. They discussed issues such as athlete burnout, performance anxiety, resilience, mindset and self-confidence in student-athletes to help inform Costa families on how to have a mindful experience while being a part of athletic programs.
“ All of the speakers are very renowned members of our community and have had success at various levels, but they also get the culture and value of character development, teamwork, leadership and good sportsmanship,”PCA Board Chair Ellen Robbins said.
The MBX Foundation and Beach Cities Health District contributed to organizing the event. According to Positive Coaching Alliance Board Chair Ellen Robbins, a similar symposium was held at Redondo Union High School in Febuary of 2018 with Maly-Karros and her father, former Dodger first baseman Eric Karros. This symposium inspired PCA, South Bay Families Connected and BCHD to move forward with organizing more speaker series events about student-athletes’ mental and emotional health.
“Our sports medicine program at CHLA is the health champion for Positive Coaching Alliance. We do a lot of collaborative efforts and projects together just to help with educational community outreach programs,” Children’s Hospital Orthopedics Physician Dr. Bianca Edison said. “From that, we wanted to do a conference that focuses more on the community, for the athletes, for the parents, and for the coaches.”
The event began with Beach Cities Health District youth advisory council co-chairs, Costa senior Ella Scalabrini and Redondo senior Chaya Houston, who spoke about the council’s involvement in the event and their goals for the future. Positive Coaching Alliance Marketing Manager Marti Reed and Dr. Edison moderated the event. The event ended by giving the audience an opportunity to ask the panel questions.
“I hope that all who attended got something out of it, whether it was personally or for someone else they know,” Scalabrini said. “I know a lot of sports coaches and teams attended, which I think is really good because student-athletes are under a lot of stress, and their coaches play big roles in their lives, so it is important that they understand what students go through.”
The Positive Coaching Alliance began in 1988. Its mission is to address issues student-athletes face. It additionally strives to inform parents on ways to comfort and aid their children in coping with the stress that comes with these issues.
“The purpose of having the [PCA] is to improve the youth sports experience,” Robbins said. “Seventy percent of kids drop out of sports by the time they’re 13 because it no longer is about everyone winning as it is character building and emphasizing the life lessons from sports.”
Chow has been coaching collegiate and professional football for over 40 years. He has coached as an offensive coordinator for colleges such as USC, UCLA and Brigham Young University, and also coached for the National Football League Tennessee Titans for two years. Chow spoke on his coaching experience during the symposium and specifically spoke on how important teamwork is to achieving success in a sport.
“It’s all about the team when you win and then the lesson you learn when you lose,” Chow said. “Make sure [the team] understands that it was the team [that won], so it minimizes that aspect of individual resposnibility.”
Jennings played at the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP), Olympic and Fédération Internationale de Volleyball level (FIVB), and has since won multiple awards with AVP and FIVB. On the panel, he spoke about his experiences with his own children in sports and the benefits of playing various sports in high school. However, he stressed the importance of learning to also keep one’s academic and athletic careers balanced.
“The lessons I’ve learned in sports have taken me well beyond sports,” Jennings said. “The teamwork aspect is so important because the benefits are so high and give so much back afterward.”
During her 27 years as the head coach for UCLA women’s gymnastics, Kondos Field coached the team to seven National Collegiate Athletic Association championships, and 19 Pacific 12 Conference championships. She coached Olympic gymnasts such as Madison Kocian, Kyla Ross, and Jamie Dantzscher. She has even coached current United States Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Michelle Guida. At the event, Kondos Field spoke on the issues she has observed within athletic communities, such as the importance of mental health awareness.
“There are more reports of depression, stress, anxiety, and sadly suicide than ever before, and that’s on us adults,” Kondos Field said. “We have got to change how we measure success for our children.”
Maly-Karros, Costa alum, and University of California, Irvine women’s basketball player, discussed the importance of learning to lose and persevering through failure. She spoke from her personal experience with switching collegiate basketball programs after her freshman year, and then departing from the UCI women’s team due to personal conflicts at that time.
“I think my generation and generations under me have so much pressure and what we perceive to be the standards are very high, which I think leads to a lot of burnouts and people to develop bad habits,” Maly-Karros said. “It’s something really worth discussing, especially for parents trying to get a handle on how to manage how they’re interacting with their kids.”
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