<p>Stereotypes about sports are just that-crap.</p>
<p>Stiemsma's</a> battle with depression, and the man who saved him</p>
<p>Great article. Most of the people with whom I’ve come in contact in college athletics are wonderful, bright and talented.</p>
<p>Glad for you MWC. It’s not true across the board but there are certainly gems out there who play sports.</p>
<p>If you or your child hasn’t walked the road of Div. 1 athletics and personally experienced the accompanying demands and stresses, you really have no idea how tough it can be. I appreciated that the article talked about the pressure these kids feel due to wanting to please people back home. We can imagine the pressure of the crowd cheering on game day, but often knowing that all your family and friends back home are following your career and expecting you to succeed, is more difficult. An athlete’s failures are often public, and sometimes nationally televised. With the internet, it’s easy to track results of even the less popular college sports. Events that aren’t televised are streamed online or posted on youtube. You’d be surprised at the following some lesser sports have, and there are forums where old men post about and discuss the young guys (and gals) and their careers. If the press is bad, it can add to an athlete’s struggle.</p>
<p>How wonderful that a caring trainer helped a kid lift himself out of a depression and down period personally and athletically. It would have been easy for the athletic staff to write him off once he got injured or seemed unenthusiastic about basketball.</p>
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<p>Part coach, part social worker, part rehab specialist, part psychologist…</p>