Handling Pressure: Time Management and Communication as a Student-Athlete
By Eric Simonelli
Counselor, College Solutions
We all live out our life in front of an audience. Family members, neighbors, roommates, fans, and social media followers watch and evaluate us every day. How do student-athletes handle the pressure that comes with focusing their mind, performing well, managing their time, and communicating with teachers and coaches?
I have worked with thousands of student-athletes over the last twenty years as a varsity and collegiate coach, and I have seen the stress and pressure they are under. The players hear critiques about their performance from their parents in the stands and feel they must live up to their expectations, which in most cases are unrealistic. I have seen players reading rants on social media about a game firsthand. After the game, they see posts about what they should/could have done better. The players are living in a world constantly putting them under pressure that is not easy to handle. How do players block out the noise at 15 to 18 years old? As a college counselor, I understand the time, effort, and dedication student-athletes put in while in high school. In 2015, my La Salle Academy Boys Basketball team captured the Rhode Island State Championship. Our best players were not our most talented ones. They were players who took the same approach on the basketball court as they did in the classroom and with their friends and family. I genuinely believe our team was successful because our leaders managed their time and communicated well with their teachers and coaches.
Let’s face it: Playing sports is gratifying, but creating a balance in your life between sports and everything else can also bring a lot of stress and challenges, so managing your time is crucial. If your team has a big game on Friday night and you have practice after school from 4 to 7 PM, how do you manage your time when you get home from practice? It is hard to stay disciplined and get something to eat, do your homework, and not respond to text messages or social media posts that are flashing on your phone. Student-athletes need to find a balance between school, athletics, deadlines at school, time spent with family and friends, and mental space needed to take a break. Sports build character, teach mental toughness, and are rewarding when you are on a special team. This capability to balance can be exhausting, but I have seen the skill push athletes to the next level athletically. Time management for student-athletes does not have to be difficult, especially if techniques to balance an achievable goal are incorporated.
The single-most critical aspect of success in time management is effective communication. Relaying necessary information can be as simple as emailing a teacher on a specific day because of a travel tournament and asking about the best way to make up work. Effective communication shows others that you are dedicated to success and that you will be able to work collaboratively on any next steps. Choose the form that works best for you: communication can be via text, email, a phone call, or even an in-person meeting. Being consistent in your communication can be daunting at first. I find it best to begin by building relationships with teachers and coaches early on and demonstrating who you are, what you are all about, and how hard you work. Having consistency in school and on the field/court helps you with all aspects of your life. Building connections early in high school and developing relationships will help you down the road as you go through the recruitment process. It is likely that your teachers, coaches, and those you are connecting with will be accepting and understanding as conflicts arise. I tell students all the time that overcommunicating is better than not communicating enough.
Let student-athletes have a voice. For parents, the most challenging part for you is when your child is unable to communicate with coaches and teachers about assignments missed or a poor grade on a test. It is essential that you coach your child to build these relationships rather than doing the communication for your student-athlete. If your child performs poorly on a quiz because he or she did not study effectively or enough, how should the child handle it? Can he or she make up the quiz to improve a grade? Will the teacher work with the student-athlete to help improve the next assignment or test? Help your student-athletes with the strategy; they won’t learn the tools if you do it for them.
What I have witnessed to be effective for student-athletes handling pressure, an important life skill, is learning how to manage time better and communicate barriers that could prevent success. To be successful on and off the field/court, you must be consistent and reliable. Let sports help shape you into the person you are as a college student and professional. Learn how to advocate for yourself when you face challenges in any aspect of your life. Remember the lessons learned as you head into college. Apply those lessons to your personal and professional life and then pay it forward to the next generation. It will make the world a better place.
About Eric
Eric Simonelli has more than 20 years of college admissions experience at both the collegiate and secondary education levels. He served as the Admission Advisor and Athletic Liaison at the University of Rhode Island for 13 years and most recently as the Director of College Counseling at La Salle Academy for 8 years. Eric has demonstrated a proven history of success in coaching and college advising students and parents on both sides of the desk.
As the Admission-Athletic Liaison, Eric has led the NCAA Eligibility Center requirements and related compliance matters for all student athletes recruited to University NCAA Division I, II, and II Intercollegiate Athletic programs. As a former DIII collegiate basketball player, Hall of Fame Inductee, and 1,000-point scorer, Eric also understands the entire recruitment process, communication flow between prospective student athletes and coaches, and advising coaches with their recruitment efforts to meet admission standards. He also has guided student athletes with course selection when evaluating their high school record and has worked closely with the Dean of Admission on supporting student athletes in the application and financial aid process.
Deeply invested in the college admissions and counseling profession, Eric is a member of the National Association of College Admission Counseling (NACAC). Eric grew up in Duxbury, Massachusetts, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Sports Management from Endicott College and a Master of Arts in Education from the University of Rhode Island. Currently, he directs Higher Learning Basketball, a youth skill development program, and is the President of the Warwick Youth Travel Basketball program. He has been married for 14 years and has two school-aged children. To learn more about working with Eric as a college counselor, sign up for a free consultation.