Oberlin Sports: Are Teams Actually That Bad?
Physical, Mental Health Work Together Continued from page 16
Oberlin College football team competing on home turf.
Photo courtesty of Amanda Phillips
John Elrod
Contributing Sports Editor Most Oberlin students would tell you that the sports teams are terrible. The College is a Division III school, and its student-athletes do not receive athletic scholarships or perform on national television like athletes at larger state schools. Even within Division III, Oberlin sports teams are often unable to keep up with their competition. However, if you are convinced that Oberlin is terrible at sports, you might just be looking in the wrong places. It is true that out of the current ten North Coast Athletic Conference schools, Oberlin ranks ninth with only 23 conference championships across all sports since 1985. Denison University and Ohio Wesleyan University are tied for first with 157 conference titles. The reputation of Oberlin athletics is often dictated by the sports that draw the biggest crowds — which have historically held losing records. In Ohio and most of the United States, football matters, and Oberlin’s football team may be the pillar of Oberlin sports’ general incompetence. Despite its early history as a powerhouse football program that competed with The Ohio State University and the University of Michigan 100 years ago, it has not had a winning season since 1990. The team was featured on ESPN.com multiple times for its historic 44-game losing streak during the late ’90s and early ‘00s. Since then, the program has only marginally improved and winning just three games since 2018. Football has not been the only Oberlin sport to be featured in national media in a negative light. In an MLB.com article about an unconventional tactic that the baseball team used in the 1990s, the writer describes Oberlin as, “a school known for hippies, artists and left-of-center leanings, where the baseball was bad and the uniforms were uncomfortable.” Not much has changed for the team since then, but the team did
14
have a proud moment when it shocked the Division III baseball world by winning the NCAC tournament in 2015 — despite having a losing record overall. While there are clear examples of athletic ineptitude in Oberlin’s past and present, there are also successful teams that receive less recognition. For example, the women’s track and field team has excelled in recent years, winning three straight NCAC meets in both outdoor and indoor track from 2017–19. In 2018, the team finished eighth in the national rankings for all of NCAA Division III. Individuals who stand out in this team include Monique Newton, OC ’18, who set conference records for shot-put and discus in 2018, and fourth-year Sarah Voit, who set the pole vault record the following year. The women’s cross country team may be the most successful Oberlin athletics program, as it has secured nine NCAC titles since 2006. During those conference championships, Oberlin has had four different runners win the race individually: Joanna Johnson in 2007, 2008, and 2010; Molly Martorella in 2012; Emma Lehman in 2014; and Linnea Halston in 2017. The team has also done well in the national rankings, finishing in the top 15 five times since 2011. There are several teams that put together a range of results from season to season or stay consistently average. Women’s and men’s lacrosse, soccer, and tennis are good examples of teams that regularly hold their own within conference play and even when facing out-of-conference Division III schools. It appears that in recent history Oberlin has had a mix of elite, average, and poor athletics teams. In the current fall 2021 season, some teams continue to struggle — but the volleyball and women’s soccer teams have each won at least half of their games so far. If we gave each of the school’s athletics programs a fair look, it could change our perception that Oberlin is a terrible sports school.
You’d be lost, wouldn’t you? That’s the only thing I can relate it to. I have been doing gymnastics for 18 years. I woke up — lost it. How am I supposed to go on with my day?” It is easily forgotten how much of sports is a mentality. Athletes exert themselves to their physical limits, quite literally having to disregard physical discomfort or even pain, for the sake of competition. Some are driven by success, but even the most unrelated mental hurt can damper that drive. Depression, anxiety, and trauma all add to the mental obstacle that challenges athletes to be their best. Although Simone was in therapy for a while, she took getting cleared to continue gymnastics as being done with therapy forever. For many athletes, this can hit too close to home. Amidst the stress of an ongoing pandemic, a lot of student-athletes are noticing the mental strain of getting back into the daily routine of balancing physical and mental success. The isolation brought by the COVID19 pandemic has shined a light on many preexisting mental health struggles for a lot of athletes, and many in the spotlight are coming forward with their experiences and how COVID-19 influenced their success coming back to their sports after so long. For women’s lacrosse college fourth-year Annie Payne, coming back was more of a relief than a burden. Being able to play and compete has allowed her to reset and clear her mind. She feels that she is at her best as a student, athlete, and friend when in season. She goes on to speak about her struggles being injured and how that provided a mental block for her in the recent season. “It’s taken me a long time for me to figure out how to pull myself out when I’m in a tough spot mentally,” she said. Payne relays how many people cannot give the same power to sports to clear their minds and how some need external support to do so. She notes the stigma about asking for help in the athletic community, and how there could be better support here at Oberlin College. “A lot of [the] time I don’t think that people realize mental health is still a significant issue in athletics,” Payne says. “Many athletes are not fully aware of the resources available on campus, and I know some have trouble balancing mental health and the increased time commitments of being in season.” Similarly to Payne, second-year field hockey player Dee Pegues feels that their mental health is taken seriously as a student, but not as much as an athlete. “I’ve never heard of support specifically for athletes with regards to mental health,” they said. Playing a sport takes up a lot of time, which Pegues believes the professors do not acknowledge. In their experience, professors believe academics are the most important, whereas coaches think athletics should come first, which is inherently conflicting. Not knowing if these support systems exist can be challenging for student-athletes, especially after not having a season for so long. Their return to athletics has been a rough one. For some second-year athletes, their first real collegiate season was a rude awakening into how hard it is to balance college academics and athletics, which is persistent among many of our athletes. Fourth-year field hockey player Eli Modahl feels very supported in her mental health. “The primary way I have gotten through it is by reaching out to teammates and asking them for support,” Modahl says. “I’ve never been let down by my team when I’ve needed help in any way.” Modahl speaks of the team environment being super supportive, and says that if anyone ever needs any help, she would try to get them the resources that they need. Support comes in many forms but it is ultimately lacking in the universal athletics community, even affecting our very own campus. Athletes are forced to look inward to their own teammates because those in power do not always help or do not relay the resources that are available. It is when those resources become widespread that athletes will truly be able to thrive at the top of both their mental and physical game.
