HRHS student athletes and teachers gather with representatives from the Lloydminster Region Health Foundation to accept a cheque for $5,200, which will fund sport psychology sessions for senior athletes. Jeannette Benoit-Leipert
Playing a competitive sport takes more than just physical strength, mental wellness is an important piece of the puzzle as well.
That’s something Holy Rosary High School (HRHS) senior boys’ volleyball coach Chelsea Steinley and sport psychologist Reid Coleman know to be true.
“He and I have spoke a lot about how both of us felt. Like, if we would’ve had the opportunity to think about sport in the mental skills aspect, how much we probably would have enjoyed our experience a lot more,” said Steinley.
“Rather than let the pressures and the things that aren’t really important to the experience, take over in those difficult moments.”
Coleman is leading a series of mental wellness sessions at HRHS to help give senior athletes the tools they need to cope with the combined pressures of high school academics, competitive sports, and other aspects of life such as relationships and jobs.
The training sessions are made possible by the Lloydminster Region Health Foundation(LRHF).
“We’re only able to do things like this for our community, obviously because of the support of our donors. Today we are presenting a cheque to Holy Rosary High School for $5,200 to help support their athletic department for building a mental wellness program for their athletes,” said LRHF CEO Stephanie Munro.
“Having a sports psychologist come in an speak with all of them and giving them the tools that they need to cope and better understand struggles that they’re going through,” said Munro, adding these courses will not only benefit the athletes themselves, but also their teammates, coaches, classmates, HRHS in general.
The idea to offer the training to students came from a group of senior volleyball players.
“They felt that training the mental side of the game was something that could really benefit them and help them with their work-life balance as well. It’s a lot of commitment to be in any senior athletics program,” said Steinley.
“They brought that idea to me and I kind of spent the summer looking into it. I reached out to Reid Coleman … and we discussed the benefits of how it will not only help their athletic performance, but hopefully they can transfer that into a lot of life skills—academically and otherwise.”
The training courses will be available to all senior athletes at HRHS.
“Everything from senior track and field athletes, badminton, curling, volleyball, basketball, football, golf—their season is done now but they can still access it if they want, it’ll hopefully roll into their next season,” said Steinley, adding that the number of sessions offered will depend on the length of the season of each sport. Athletes participating in longer-running sports may be able to attend 2-3 sessions, while the shorter-running ones might do 1-2 sessions.
The first training session was held on the evening of Oct. 24, and Steinley said the students were impressed.
“Reid has an extensive sports background as well and so he understands the balance of the pressures of succeeding in your sport and developing as an athlete, while you’re balancing school and relationships and friendships and family and maybe jobs and other pressures.
He came in and gave some background and let the boys ask him some questions, talked about his experience,” said Steinley.
“It was a great first session and we’re really really grateful to the health foundation for the opportunity and this grant so that these athletes at our school can participate in these sessions and develop mental skills that will transfer to everything they do in life, not just their sport.”
