The physical part of sport seems to be covered perfectly through reputable coaches, physical therapists and weight lifting trainers. However, it is the other half of the game that is not being accounted for, the mental game. In our culture today, female athletes are constantly being sexualized, gay and lesbian athletes are under scrutiny daily, performing enhancing drugs are becoming more popular, and young athletes feel the need to look a specific way in sports such as ice skating and wrestling. I am not saying these issues are not being talked about in the media and within teams, but what has actually been done to get control over these threatening problems? In the past, a weight lifting coach was unheard of. It was the coaches and physical therapists that dealt with muscular building and strength training. Today, a college would not be caught without a strength and conditioning coach. So I ask, why isn't there a professional assigned for the mental aspect of sport? Sport Psychologists are trained for those specific issues and serve as an outside resource to talk to for athletes. If sexual orientation, drug and alcohol abuse, body image issues, and sexism are all major issues in our sport culture, then why hasn’t there been a counselor set on each team that serves those exact issues? Hopefully some day in the future when the new generation of athletes reach the college level, that more resources are made towards attacking those specific issues so we can mark one problem off the list of sport culture. If there is more awareness about these issues then I believe change will come.
Jocelyn Neely
Kin 577
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