Abstract
“Drastic times call for drastic measures”—Hippocrates. The COVID-19 pandemic has had vast and lasting impacts on virtually every aspect of life. Without question, the sports world today looks very different than it looked a year ago. Professional sports leagues adapted to the pandemic by implementing bubbles and strict testing protocols (Dove et al., 2020), but college sports have been slower to adapt. All spring college athletes lost a full season of competition when National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) leagues canceled sporting events in March 2020 and the same thing happened for some fall and winter athletes. With many gyms and other training facilities closed due to the regional lockdown regulations due to the pandemic around the country, it is difficult for college athletes to train on their own and be physically prepared for a collegiate season. More importantly, being separated from teammates has long term impacts on team culture and both mental and physical health. The question remains: how do college athletes stay connected with teammates and prepare for competitions despite being spread out across the country or even the world?
Highlights
All spring college athletes lost a full season of competition when National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) leagues canceled sporting events in March 2020 and the same thing happened for some fall and winter athletes
Research shows a causal relationship between social connectedness and mental health (Kawachi and Berkman, 2001; Cruwys et al, 2014; Perkins et al, 2015), meaning that maintaining connections among athletes is crucial for mental health purposes
While enhancing social connectedness is a meaningful way of improving mental health for team sport athletes when forced apart during the pandemic, this time apart should be used to promote other aspects of mental health as well as keeping up the physical preparedness
Summary
The sports world today looks very different than it looked a year ago. All spring college athletes lost a full season of competition when National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) leagues canceled sporting events in March 2020 and the same thing happened for some fall and winter athletes. With many gyms and other training facilities closed due to the regional lockdown regulations due to the pandemic around the country, it is difficult for college athletes to train on their own and be physically prepared for a collegiate season. Being separated from teammates has long term impacts on team culture and both mental and physical health. The question remains: how do college athletes stay connected with teammates and prepare for competitions despite being spread out across the country or even the world?
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