{"id":29248,"date":"2021-05-06T23:24:59","date_gmt":"2021-05-07T03:24:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=29248"},"modified":"2021-05-06T23:25:03","modified_gmt":"2021-05-07T03:25:03","slug":"youth-soccer-reporting-adverse-mental-health-impacts-due-to-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/youth-soccer-reporting-adverse-mental-health-impacts-due-to-shutdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Youth Soccer reporting adverse mental health impacts due to shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In response to the COVID-19 lockdowns, a WhatsApp group with 17 youth soccer clubs was comprised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initially designed to discuss the sharing of resources, Executive Director of FC Durham Academy Elizabeth McCaw addressed another important topic of the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe government isn\u2019t really asking our athletes what\u2019s happening to them,\u201d McCaw stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe school lockdowns and the lack of structure, social connections and routine is how we build our programs. So, when we took that away from our athletes, the question just came up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Riding into Mental Health week with CamH (May 3-9), McCaw wanted to share the voice of our athletes. Almost instantly, all groups agreed to comply and two questions were sent out to over 30,000 athletes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe got 3,500 [responses] within a five-, six-day period. It showed us instantly how bad the problem is. It was difficult to hear our kids speaking to us and our families.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the absence of physical joy and outdoor fun on to the soccer pitch, the first question was, \u201cOver the last year of navigating the pandemic, has your player\u2019s mental health been affected in any of the following ways? (Anxiety, Worry, Depression, Lack of Structure, Loss of Social Connection, Loss of Routine, Stress, other).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second question asked, \u201cWhat would your player say is the thing they miss most about participating with their club\/academy team in a regular in-person environment?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After scrounging through the numbers and organizing the responses, the data was troubling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to their numbers, \u201c86 per cent lack social connection, 82 per cent loss of routine, 67 per cent lack structure, 2 in 5 identified experiencing anxiety, stress and worry, 1 in 5 noted depression, 40 per cent referenced exercise and lack of physical activity as the thing they miss the most, and 32 per cent miss their teammates and friends.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the beginning of this recent lockdown, soccer clubs were gearing up for a return to the pitch and the hope was to get back to playing competitive matches. According to the survey, most players were a part of competitive teams. And now there is a risk of not even being able to get back to soccer as we knew it anytime soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know I can say this on behalf of every club. We have sat back and sat back. We\u2019ve believed in our government with confidence they\u2019ll take us through this and they have failed us,\u201d said President of Whitecaps London and match referee Abbi Lezizidis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An article released by CBC\u2019s Muriel Draaisma written on April 14, said that Toronto\u2019s SickKids ER visits have grown by 25 per cent for children thinking about suicide. McCaw had heard that SickKids was up by 12 per cent in youth mental health visits in general from professor and holder of the Canada Research Chair in School-Based Mental health and Violence Prevention Tracy Vaillancourt via email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These alarming numbers have many parents with younger children and teenagers worried.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s another pandemic that\u2019s going to come as a result of COVID. If the government doesn\u2019t pay attention at the health table to say as we\u2019re dealing with one crisis, we\u2019re creating another, that\u2019s where we want to sit in the space,\u201d McCaw said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What this exposed for all clubs is to generate a document of resources to help parents with children experiencing these adverse mental affects, reminding them of what options their children have to continue to get better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What began as an advocacy campaign has now turned into a movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat is important to note is we\u2019re not talking about soccer only, we\u2019re talking about youth sports,\u201d Lezizidis said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBasketball was approved to play outside last summer yet soccer wasn\u2019t approved. We couldn\u2019t touch the ball with our hands. We\u2019re looking for consistency. Some common sense here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lezizidis touched on multiple studies that proved transmission of any illness outdoors in the summer time is minimal. He also runs a men\u2019s soccer league in London and says seven different health units will dictate whether or not he will be able to play this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both McCaw and Lezizidis plan to send a candid and open email to Premier Doug Ford, with the hopes of an Interview Opportunity to discuss what COVID-19 health measures are doing to children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the government can be the benefactor and the saviour for many local clubs itching to play they should know it\u2019s far beyond sport. At this point, it is about justifying the health of all young athletes. It\u2019s about understanding that physical health is not only of the utmost importance. Mental health is not far away either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Robert Belardi<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In response to the COVID-19 lockdowns, a WhatsApp group with 17 youth soccer clubs was comprised. Initially designed to discuss the sharing of resources, Executive Director of FC Durham Academy Elizabeth McCaw addressed another important topic of the group. \u201cThe government isn\u2019t really asking our athletes what\u2019s happening to them,\u201d McCaw stated. \u201cThe school lockdowns […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-7BK","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-14 16:22:45","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29248\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}