By Kareena Dhillon
Executive Opinion Editor
South Bay Families Connected hosted a speaker series titled “Under Pressure: Stress Resilience When the Stakes are High” on Oct. 3 in the auditorium to discuss student athletes and stress management.
The event opened with senior members of the Youth Advisor Counsel talking about mental health issues within high school athletes. Costa senior Ella Scalabrini spoke about her involvement with Mental Health Awareness week and hopes to have an anti-nicotine campaign in the future.
“I think that the Connected Speakers Series is a really good way for the Beach Cities Health District’s Youth Advisory Council to provide information about the events that we put on at Costa and advertising to let people know about our future plans,” Scalabrini said.
The event panel also featured football coach Norm Chow, volleyball player Casey Jennings, former UCLA head gymnastics coach Valorie Kondos Field and athlete therapist Mikah Maly-Karros, who discussed feeling ashamed in sports. The Positive Coaching Alliance and the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles moderated the panel.
“Sports taught me discipline, and it gave me drive and purpose,” Jennings said. “It taught me how to be a leader. I would hate to know what my life would be like without sports.”
Maly-Karros discussed how shame is not unhealthy, as it is necessary to know when a line or a limit has been crossed. However, society benefits from humiliation. She noticed the increasing and alarming level of internalized embarrassment in students; almost everyone who comes to therapy experiences it, according to Maly-Karros.
“Shame is almost normalized in college sports,” Maly-Karros said. “Most coaches operate using shame like that because it’s effective. On the other hand, parents don’t even realize how much kids are experiencing this.”
The questions asked during the panel focused on depression in sports and mental health concerns that students face. Not only are kids becoming more antisocial, but they are spending more time on their phones than with actual people, Field said.
“Perfection doesn’t exist,” Field said. “When you set your sights on something you want to achieve and then internalize it all, you’re not learning a thing, but if you stop and analyze why you weren’t successful, you are that much closer to reaching your goal. We need to get fear of failure out of our vocabulary.”
Field discussed the need to change the definition of winning and success, stating that athletes cannot simply focus on the win. This places a heavy burden on athletes, and this is an unhealthy environment for athletes suffering from depression. According to Field, success cannot be defined by getting first place. The night ended in breakout sessions for student athletes, coaches, and parents.
“In sports, human beings learn really tough lessons that they don’t learn in classrooms,” Field said. “We cannot simply focus on the win; if we do that, it places a terrible burden on people. As a result, more people are depressed. Kids have to be able to feel successful. Success cannot be defined as getting first place.”
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