Introduction to Sport Social Work

Editor’s note: This text-based course is an edited transcript of the webinar, Introduction to Sport Social Work, presented by Matt Moore, MSW, PhD.

Learning Outcomes

After this course, participants will be able to:

• Define sport social work and describe the competencies and values of a sport social worker.
• Identify social work theories that inform sport social work practice with athletes experiencing behavioral health or psychosocial risks. 
• Explore strategies for engaging in future work with athletes. 

Introduction

I am coming to sports social work as a former athlete and coach. I have been on the opposite side of mentoring and I have managed different athletic programs. At the heart of who I am is being a social worker. One of the greatest things you can do in life is find ways to connect your personal passions with your love for the social work field. 

Defining Social Work

We have started to see an increase in the number of sports social workers being hired to work in some of the top athletic programs across the country. In trying to make that leap from social work to sport social work, I have some tips for you. The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) says that “the primary mission of the social work profession is to enhance human well-being and help to meet the basic human needs of all people, with particular attention to the needs and empowerment of people who are vulnerable.” There are a few words to pay attention to in this definition. Oftentimes in sports social work, the word “vulnerable” is interesting because individuals struggle with the understanding that athletes can be considered a vulnerable population. People often see athletes as having extreme strengths and characteristics, access to resources, and other benefits that the general population may not have. While there is some truth to that, it will become clear in this presentation that there are things going on in their lives that require social work intervention. 

Defining Sport Social Work

Sport social work promotes social justice and social change by focusing on the unique needs of athletes at both an individual and environmental level. Not only are we concerned about the athletes themselves, but we are also concerned about the environment in which they are competing. That can include their teammates, coaches, administrators, and other individuals that are part of the athletic performance teams. This can extend into the community spectrum as well. Treatment would start with direct practice. This can mean providing counseling and therapeutic interventions through clinically-based services, or life skill development and financial literacy.  

We also know that sports can be powerful when it comes to organizing communities. We have seen this with recent happenings in our world. Part of sports social work is how we can help athletes utilize their platform. We want to educate them and help them advocate for a world that supports health and development. Sports social workers are also prominent within education. This goes back to having social workers be a part of the athletic space. We are seeing an increase in the number of social workers that are working in athletics and we want to make sure that we are providing them with ongoing education. 

Throughout my time in a traditional education setting, there was not a lot of information specific to athletes and the way in which social workers can work with that population. Social workers have some ground to cover when it comes to working with athletes, so we want to make sure they are educated. What are some evidence-based practices? What are the current models that allow us to serve vulnerable athletes? 

The final component of this is research. Whether it be research on older adults or child welfare, we need to make sure that we continue to grow our literature base. As we understand current events in our social environment, we will be better able to respond in a way that promotes growth and promotes development. 

Sports social workers seek to enhance the capability of athletes to address their own behavioral health and psychosocial needs. Our overall goal is getting clients to the point of self-autonomy and allowing them to feel empowered. We want them to make strides in their life without needing constant intervention from social workers. Sports social workers believe that if we are able to deliver excellent services, then we will be able to quickly address the needs of individuals. We can then set them up for not only short-term success, but for long-term success as well. Short-term and long-term success applies both in and away from competition. Sport social workers care about competition because we understand how important it is. However, we also understand that there is more to life than sports. Sports are only one portion of an athlete’s identity and we have to make sure that we are looking out for that. 

We also want to talk about encouraging athletes to advocate for change because they often have large platforms. If a famous athlete steps up and shares information about the challenges going on in our world, it catches attention. They have the ability to help others move in the directions that we need to go. 

Social workers also encourage athletic organizations, communities, and other institutions to recognize athletes as a vulnerable population. Part of what sport social workers do is bring awareness to the specific challenges that are facing athletes. Administrators understand that athletes have needs. It is their responsibility to help them address those needs and get them the interventions that they need. This way, they can be supported both athletically and in their long-term lives. 

Target Population

When we think about the sports population, numbers are important to share because many people wonder how many athletes we are talking about. If you look at the youth level of competition defined by ages five to 18, there are over 36 million American youths that participate in organized sport activities each year. We also need to think about how we can promote healthy and positive development in younger athletes. 

There are over 550,000 athletes competing at the collegiate level. This is from data from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). If you look at rosters of all the professional sports teams, there are over 18,000 professional athletes competing in the United States. Additionally, there are a lot of individuals that may need some type of sports social work intervention. As we continue to grow the field, we are going to learn more about this. 

Sport Social Work Competencies

I want to talk about the competencies that define sports social work. The council for social work education has established nine competencies in over 20 practice behaviors that they look for in professional social workers. These competencies were easy to transfer into sports social work because there are parallels between the field and some other subspecialty fields. 

The first competency is being able to demonstrate ethical and professional behavior. The heart of being a social worker is the NASW Code of Ethics. We want to make sure that we are staying true to our core values and ethical principles that establish what professional behavior looks like in this space. There are a handful of ethical considerations that we have to give sport social workers, given some of the athletes that we work with and the pressure that is put on them. For those of you who are working within that space, competition sometimes shines over what is appropriate. Social workers need to make sure that they focus on the total athlete and not just the competition. 

Another competency is engaging diversity and difference within our practice. We know that every athlete is going to be different from the next. Many of them come from different locations, family backgrounds, socioeconomic statuses, and so on. In order for us to be successful, we have to consider the unique characteristics that define athletes from a more broad perspective. This includes the other identities they have in their lives because their athletic component is only one part of who they are. 

There is also advancing athletes’ rights and justice. This is something that sports social workers have done a great job with over the last five to 10 years. Social workers were endorsing documents such as the NCAA Mental Health Best Practices, which define how we should address mental health and behavioral health at the collegiate level. We have been instrumental in working with the NCAA and other organizations on sexual assault, interpersonal violence within sports, sleep disorders, and athlete wellness. We have led charges of research projects related to substance abuse and misuse within athletics. We have worked with the United States Olympic Committee on a variety of different projects as well. Social workers were key in creating some of the training that is now offered through the U.S. Center for Safe Sport, which certifies sports volunteers and investigates violations done by coaches, volunteers or other individuals. 

Looking at engaging in sport research, we have to continue to gain a better understanding of what sport social work really looks like. What are the impacts of having a social worker embedded within an athletic program? What are the competitive and life outcomes that were achieved by having social workers engaging in sport policy practice? 

There was a recent piece of legislation that was looking at relief funding and management for youth sports. Many youth sports organizations have taken a hit to their budgets as a result of the public health crisis. We want to make sure that youth sports organizations continue to receive funding. This way, athletes can return to playing when it is safe, and we can continue to provide great services. Examples of how sport policy can come into play is by engaging athletes, team sports organizations and communities. You not only should just work within social work, but also trying to understand what healthy athletic development looks like. Depending on your level of competition, that development may look different. By engaging individuals, we are able to immerse ourselves into the ecological perspective. We understand that the athlete is a part of a team, that team is a part of an organization, and that organization is part of a community. We need to be able to engage with all levels of that sport. 

We also need to consider assessing athletes, team sports, and organizations. Some specific statistics around behavioral health and mental health components can be fairly high. Part of our job as sports social workers is to be able to assess the needs of athletes. What are the needs of these teams and sports organizations? 

Moving into the intervention component, it is important to think about how we do it. What services can we put into place? What roles can social workers take on within the sport communities? You can then evaluate our work with the teams and organizations and continue from there.

Sport Social Work Values

From a value standpoint, I want to talk about how these six core values that define social work are embedded within sports social work as well: 

• Service
• Dignity and Worth
• Integrity
• Social Work
• Importance of Human Relationships
• Competence

Service boils down to us being able to help athletes address the behavioral health and the psychosocial challenges that impact their ability to be successful both in and away from competition. From there, you transition into dignity and worth. This is about being mindful of the individual cultural differences that each athlete brings to competition. This is no different from what you would see in most other fields of social work. 

Integrity is about following the mission, visions, and standards established by the National Association of Social Workers. From a social justice standpoint, we want to ensure access to education and services related to behavioral health and psychosocial risks. There is a large need for improvement in this particular area. There needs to be ongoing education within the sports space on the vulnerabilities and risk factors that athletes might be presented with during their time in competition. There is also a need for more mental health services, and that ranges from the youth to the highest level of competition. The profession is hiring more individuals to fill that void, and a good amount of those individuals have been social workers. We have sports social workers that are working for nearly every professional sport league, as well as working at some of the largest colleges and universities.

We also understand the importance of human relationships. This goes back to the concept that individual athletes are part of multiple teams. These teams can be athletic and non-athletic related. They are likely a part of a family, friend group, and other clubs or activities. Some athletes may have kids or spouses, as well as other responsibilities. It is important to understand how different relationships play into an athlete's life and where they potentially conflict with one another. 

The final value is competency. This presentation is aimed to help individuals understand how you can repurpose social work competencies and apply that to the athletic environment. Sports social work takes what we have learned throughout our education and social work research and retooling it to be utilized in a specific space. 

Defining Athletic Identity

I want to discuss athletic identity. When you ask an athlete about the most important things in their life, I guarantee you sports would be one of the first things that they mention. An athletic identity is understood by how athletes associate with sports. It is an emphasis in the sport social workspaces at the collegiate and professional level. 

As we continue through the webinar, you are going to hear me talk more about the collegiate and professional space. This is because it is the majority of the jobs that are popping up. Additionally, it is also where we see the highest level of need when it comes to emotions and behaviors. 

Sample Vulnerabilities

Here is a list of sample vulnerabilities: 

• Mental Health
• Alcohol Use
• Substance Use 
• Eating Disorders

This also includes sport injuries, transitioning, minority athletes, and some additional items. Looking at mental health, recent research shows that approximately 20 to 30 percent of college athletes would meet some level of clinical criteria for depression or anxiety diagnosis. Smaller percentages would meet diagnostic criteria for things such as mood disorder and post-traumatic stress. 20 to 30 percent of 550,000 athletes is a good amount of individuals that would benefit from social work intervention. 

I also want to discuss statistics around e-cigarettes. Their current use at the collegiate level ranges from 8 percent at the NAIA and 16 percent in the NCAA competition. We are starting to see issues with nicotine use that goes along with that as well. From a substance use standpoint, marijuana rates are anywhere between 20 to 25 percent in current college sports. This means that those athletes have identified using marijuana on a semi or regular basis within the last year. 50 to 77 percent of college athletes have reported drinking on a regular basis over the last year. When you look at binge-drinking rates, some studies show 13 percent and other studies show 36 percent of college athletes binge drinking on a routine basis. 

We know that student, collegiate, or even professional athletes begin to overuse alcohol. This is also associated with other unsafe practices. This includes riding in the car with somebody that has been drinking, having multiple sexual partners, participating in gambling activities, and so on. There are a lot of other things that we have to worry about as sports social workers besides the consumption of alcohol. 

As we look more into substance use, 2 to 3 percent of athletes at the collegiate and professional level report using medications without a prescription. The rate for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) stimulants is anywhere from 3 to 7.5 percent of individuals that are utilizing ADHD stimulants without a prescription. With cocaine rates, this is represented by 2 to 4 percent of college athletes. Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is shown through 3 percent in most research studies. Sharing the statistics of the vulnerabilities highlight the need for social workers within athletic spaces. 

From a disordered eating standpoint, 6 percent of female college athletes meet some level of clinical diagnostic criteria for having an eating disorder. 10 percent of female college athletes state that their self-esteem about their body image is low or extremely low. There are specific sports that are more prone to disordered eating. Those who participate in wrestling are three times more likely to have an eating disorder than any other sport. Additionally, those who are involved in sports that are judged versus refereed and sports in which minimal clothing is worn, such as gymnastics and swimming, also tend to have higher rates of disordered eating. 

Sport injuries is a topic that I have done research on. I have experienced a handful of different injuries in my life. Over the last five years, I have gotten my left eye removed because of some health issues. It has impacted me because I could no longer do competitive coaching or play tennis. These injuries can be harmful and damaging and not just physically, but also psychosocially and emotionally. The impact that injuries have on athletes can be severe. When you think this at the collegiate level, there are about 4,000 college athletes every year that experience some type of season-ending or career-ending injury. Our goal for social workers is to find ways to help them grow from them as opposed to letting the injuries plague them. 

Transitioning is another important topic that we need to think about in the sport social workspace. We think about endings and terminations in our relationships with clients, but athletes have to think about that ending and transition with their own sport career. The number of individuals that go on to play college sports cuts drastically, and it cuts more drastically when people try to make the leap to professional sports. It is safe to say that almost any athlete is going to eventually see the end of their competitive playing career, and some athletes handle that better than others. Our role as sport social workers is to help them understand the transition can come and support them. They can look for new possibilities and recognize strengths so they can be able to make that transition as smooth as possible. 

From a minority athlete standpoint, there has been research about this topic, especially about Black college athletes. One thing that stands out in the literature is that Black college athletes are often looked at as only being athletes. They are not always seen as being a student-athlete. Many individuals put an overburden on the athletic component in those particular situations versus being able to see the individual for who they really are. We know that Black college athletes also have a tendency to feel isolated from the college campus. I think a lot of this goes back to people only seeing them as an athlete. They do not see them as being interwoven within the fabric of an overall college setting. The other factor is that Black college athletes may face academic scrutiny. This means faculty members at universities grade harder, discredit their work, or do not believe that they are as capable as their peers. These are just a handful of sample vulnerabilities that are out there. 

Now that we understand that these vulnerabilities exist, what causes them? There is no set prescription for what causes a vulnerability within the life of an athlete. Some of it could be pressure from family or friends, feelings of social isolation, fear of not getting enough playing time, and so on. Sports social workers have to wonder why athletes come to us and what the ultimate underlying need is for behavioral expression. For example, smoking marijuana is a behavioral expression, but what is the root cause for why they decided to start smoking marijuana on a routine basis? 

Service Delivery Barriers

There are a lot of service barriers that social workers have to help athletes understand. The first one is that, from a societal standpoint, athletes are told that they are supposed to accept pain and deal with adversity. They are expected to not show any sign of weakness, which is so counterproductive. We would hope that individuals going through these challenges would feel comfortable enough to speak up, but society tells athletes differently. 

One of the biggest barriers that we face is trying to fight through some of the societal stereotypes that are out there. This does not just apply to an athletic setting. Most community settings have limited mental health literacy. This means the athletes often cannot distinguish between what is a normal and abnormal amount of distress. The life of an athlete is always going to be full of conflict and competition, it is going to be full of emotional ups and downs. We need athletes to be able to recognize when it crosses the line from being normal to abnormal. How does the abnormal amount of stress impact their coping mechanisms and ability to meet their goals in a safe and healthy way? 

Athletes also have a tendency to resist services. Oftentimes, this boils down to the type of language that we utilize within our practice. Athletes get scared when they hear large acronyms, they get scared when they start thinking about the time they need to spend learning about it. There are a lot of different socialization components that go into that. As social workers, we need to meet athletes where they are within the continuum of change. We need to help them understand that our role is to allow them to not only get better in competition but also make sure they are going to be in a healthy and happy place long-term. 

At the collegiate level, athletes often report that they have limited knowledge about service availability and comfort. The biggest thing that you find is that college athletes have rigorous schedules. While the NCAA and the NAIA may say that an athlete has 20 hours worth of athletic activity over the course of a week, the number is skewed. As somebody that coached college tennis, I can tell you that a week could be gone for an entire weekend. For a 48-hour period playing two or three matches, that may only count as 6 hours of the 20 hours. 

When you think about the life of an athlete, you need to think about it in a way that they have a full-time job while also trying to be a full-time student. It is a lot of hours and pressure that is being placed on these individuals. Availability is an important factor. An athlete wakes up, goes to a team breakfast, attends class, participates in practice, goes to dinner, and all of a sudden it is late at night. Should they do their homework or try to meet with a counselor to address some of their challenges? 

Services at the collegiate level are broken down in three categories. One category focuses on academic factors such as tutoring services, career development, and academic advising. The second category is athletic service. This could be athletic training, sports psychology, and seeking medical professionals. The third category is behavioral health services. This can include counseling, mindfulness practices, and whatever services that sports social workers deliver. Comfort levels for academic and athletic services on a five-point scale typically hovered above a level four. The behavioral health services hovered below a level three. There is a disparity in the amount of comfort that athletes have in receiving things that can impact them in the athletic and academic aspects versus the behavioral aspect. 

The last barrier is that athletes often think that if they say that they have a behavioral health challenge, then they could lose playing time, lose a scholarship, receive a decrease in their pay, or lose relationships with teammates. They experience internal thoughts that are not necessarily true. There is some level of truth to some of them, but they are usually ideas that are conjured up by the athlete themselves. We have to take this into consideration. 

An Ecological Framework

I want to spend some time talking about the prominent theories that we see within the sports social workspace. One of the theories is an ecological framework. This breaks down into four different levels; the micro, the mezzo, the exo, and the macro level. Working in sports social work at the micro-level, you have to think about not only the individual athlete, but also their coaches, teammates, family, and friends. 

The mezzo level is about other professionals that often work within the sports space. This could be sport and exercise psychologists, other mental health professionals, athletic trainers, and medical personnel. Individuals that also are trying their best to influence into shape athletes and help them not only succeed in competition, but also to succeed in life.

The exo level gets into organizational policies and athletic regulations. The NCAA and other organizations have regulations that are stringent. When we are trying to work within that space, we have to have a keen awareness and understanding of those policies. 

The macro-level is about our own values and ethics, as well as sport culture and history. Depending on what program you work for, there is a culture and a history that has been in place for many years that you need to consider. 

Systems Theory

The second theory is the systems theory. Many athletes look at members of their athletic team as being a family. Teams typically spend anywhere from 20 to 40 hours a week together. When I was in the college coaching field, I spent more time with my college athletes than I did with my own kids. From a coaching standpoint, you know what you are getting yourself into. This approach is important because when you are around those individuals as much as you are, you start to embody those characteristics and criteria. 

Athletic teams are made up of innovative elements and objectives. They exhibit coherent behaviors, have regular interactions with one another, and are interdependent. Similar to any family setting, each member of a team displays characteristics that can influence the interactions of one another. We have to consider that if we want to change an athlete, you may want to change the culture in which that athlete is working. This means that we may need to change the mindset of the coaching staff, the team, or the mindset of the organization. 

Athletic teams also vary in how open they are. Some families are open and allow new individuals into their home life and personal lives without much resistance, while others might not be the same. It is about sports social diversity, and we need to understand how these teams meet on the open or closed perspective. 

When the action or lack of action from one member of the team can impact everyone else. I have coached many teams and it takes one player to make a bad decision and impact the entire team. I had a player one time that thought it was a wise idea to go out with fake identification while underage. They got caught and were suspended for the entire tennis season. The decision of that one individual impacted the entire team. These situations can impact the overall competition and it can cause behavioral health and emotional challenges as well. 

Empowerment

The next theory is empowerment, which is one that athletes have a tendency to resonate with. Athletes use their physical and mental talents to compete and perform at a high level every day. Using their physical and mental talent for sport does not mean that those talents cannot be transferred to other areas of life as well. As sports social workers, it is important for us to understand the strengths that these athletes are bringing to the table and how we can retool those abilities. This can support their self-efficacy in other areas as well. 

A lot of athletes in their competition experiences have had extreme ups and downs. We can talk to them about what helped them get through their experiences. How are you able to change certain factors about your performance on or off the field? We may be able to gain insight into the strengths that that individual has. Additionally, we can help them think in an athletic mindset, even if we are not focusing on a competition-oriented situation. We may be thinking about the amount of sleep they get or their overall behavioral health. 

Human Development

Human development is another important factor as well. It is imperative for sports social workers to consider what shapes the athlete into who they are today. We have learned about adverse childhood experiences within the social work field over the last couple of decades. Those apply to the sports social work field as well. These athletes come from different families and backgrounds that we have to be able to understand. This can be done through a critical events timeline or other measurement tools that are out there. We need to make sure that we are resonating with all that has happened to them in their lives. It is fair to say that our experiences shape our lives. We always encourage sports social workers to give considerable thought to the major developmental theorists that are out there. Understanding proper development allows for us to be more effective. 

Case Study

This is a de-identified case study. You are a social worker with a university in the southwest. A starting forward on the basketball team failed a random drug screen. The student-athlete is agitated about meeting with you. He believes there is no need for help and only wants to do what is necessary to get back on the basketball courts. 

How might you use the aforementioned theories to help guide your initial conversation with the athlete? How does helping this athlete relate to the values and the competencies of sport social work? Think back through some of the different theories and talk about how these theories may play into this individual's life. 20 to 25 percent of student-athletes utilize marijuana, and higher percentages might be using other substances. The challenge that you run into with failed random drug screens, especially at the collegiate level, is it costs you competition time. Failing a random drug screen is going to cause an athlete to miss anywhere from 25 to 50 percent of the season. Not only are you dealing with somebody that does not feel there is a need for change, but you are also dealing with somebody that has now lost a huge part of their athletic identity. 

We can also think about it from an ecological perspective. Looking at the micro-level, the athlete has teammates that have now been impacted as well. Due to this individual’s absence from practices and competitions, it could change the dynamics within that team setting. Coaches are now dealing with an athlete that is upset because they cannot play. They may also have to devise how they are going to approach upcoming competitions. The athlete will now have to share this information with family, with friends as to why they are no longer playing or attending practices. 

Moving into the mezzo level, this is where the sport social workers would come into play. There can be other mental health professionals that are trying to help this athlete as well. Whether it was a one-time use or an ongoing pattern, we need to figure it out. Looking at the exo level, we know what the NCAA policy tells us as far as failed drug screens and how that impacts from a regulation standpoint. 

At the macro level, it goes back to history, sport culture, values, and ethics. History is important in trying to figure out if there is any potential family history or cultural problem that might be going on within their athletic environment. From there, you move into sort of the systems theory approach. You are all of a sudden down a player. They may have been a starting player or only gave several great minutes during practice and competitions. As a result of this, the athlete’s teammates might be upset with them. Why would they subject their team to this? You also might have athletes on the team that are encouraging the substance use and abuse. 

There are plenty of individuals that are impacted. From there, you start moving into the empowerment perspective. It took skill and talent for this athlete to get into college from an academic and competitive standpoint. What were the driving forces behind that? What allowed that individual to succeed? We know that there were strengths and talents that allowed for all of that to happen in the first place, so how do we repurpose that? How do we help this athlete realize that the same strengths that they used to succeed can also help them get out of their substance abuse? From a developmental standpoint, this is where we have to dig back into this individual's life to start thinking about a potential history? Are there internal pressures? Does this individual have adverse childhood experiences that are now manifesting in college or getting worse? When individuals get to the collegiate level, that plight of independence can be difficult if they do not have the strongest support system. 

You can see how these different theories can fit in and can mold in this situation. We need to look at it from multiple lenses because I do not think that any one theory would allow for a sports social worker to do their job effectively. The theories that are mentioned here are not the only ones that could be utilized.

The Future of Sport Social Work

The future of sport social work is extremely bright. A few years ago, we created the Alliance of Social Workers in Sports, an international sport social work organization. We served as a membership organization, which is similar to what the NSW does for the overall social work profession. Our membership is made up of individuals that want to work within the athletic space, but have a professional organization backing. Social workers that want to follow the sport route have been advantageous. We are able to work with community-based organizations such as the NCAA and the NAIA, and this has happened since the creation of the Alliance of Social Workers in Sports. 

We have also seen an increase in grant funding and ongoing peer-reviewed research that has been done within the sport social workspace. Grant funding has allowed individuals to focus on positive youth development at the collegiate level, trying to find the best practices to address behavioral health risks. We can also address the systemic issues that we find in professional sports. Michael Jordan recently pledged to give 100 million dollars to various organizations that look at the impact that race has within the athletic setting. We have also seen an increase in educational opportunities. 

A lot of social work programs across the country now have special elective topics at the undergraduate and graduate level on sports social work. There is also an official program offered through the Alliance of Social Workers in Sports for those that want to become certified sports social workers. This program gets 52 continuing education units through NSW as well in the expanding job market. We are seeing more jobs that are geared for sports social workers, whether it be clinical positions or working in student-athlete development. A lot of professional sports leagues are hiring individuals in alumni positions to help athletes as they are transitioning out of sports. Social workers are being selected for those types of positions as well. While there is not an abundance of jobs, there are positions that are becoming readily available. I would anticipate that we are going to see an explosion in the number of sports social work jobs that are out there as we establish ourselves more. We are going to be able to do evaluation research to illustrate what it can mean to have a social worker embedded within a team. 

Closing Thought

There is a quote by Nelson Mandela that says, "Sport has the power to change the world." I know from my own personal life that sport changed me for the better, whether it be the years I spent as a college athlete or the coaching opportunities that were provided to me. Sport can unite our society and communities together. We can oftentimes rally around an athlete or a team, and sport provides us with a moment to step back and experience something fun. It can let our minds step away from the stressors that we have in life. If sports are utilized in the right way and continue to get more social workers involved, then we can allow it to grow even more. We can expand that sports landscape to make sure that it is not always just about competition, but it is also about using sport as an opportunity to teach valuable life lessons. 

Questions and Answers

In thinking about the instrumental role that a social worker can play with athletes, how early is too early for social workers to get involved with an individual who is an athlete?

It is never too early. I can tell you that I have a grant-funded project surrounding seven- and eight-year-old soccer players and positive youth development. We want to help athletes at a young age understand what should be key tenants within sports. How can you learn about community through sports? How can you develop character, competency, self-confidence, elements of caring, and elements of collaboration? If we are able to establish those frameworks in younger athletes, I think it allows them to develop with the right mindset and perspective. It hopefully sets them up to be more successful to the pressures that might come later on in their athletic career.

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