Taking Healthcare by Storm: Industry Insights with Aaron Cavalline & Ryan Smock

In this episode of Taking Healthcare by Storm, Quality Insights Medical Director Dr. Jean Storm speaks with Aaron Cavalline and Ryan Smock, dedicated high school coaches at Harbor Creek High School. 

Aaron and Ryan discuss the mental health benefits of students' participation in sports, highlighting topics like resilience, teamwork, social media pressures, and the effects of COVID-19 on athletics. They also explore the future of high school sports and the growing trend towards specialized training and travel teams.

If you have any topics or guests you'd like to see on future episodes, reach out to us on our website.

Publication number QI-120525-GK

Transcript

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Welcome to "Taking Healthcare by Storm: Industry Insights," the podcast that delves into the captivating intersection of innovation, science, compassion, and care. 

In each episode, Quality Insights’ Medical Director Dr. Jean Storm will have the privilege of engaging with leading experts across diverse fields, including dieticians, pharmacists, and brave patients navigating their own healthcare journeys. 

Our mission is to bring you the best healthcare insights, drawing from the expertise of professionals across West Virginia, Pennsylvania and the nation.

Subscribe now, and together, we can take healthcare by storm.

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Taking Healthcare by Storm. I am Dr. Jean Storm, the medical director of Quality Insights, and we are shifting gears a bit today. We are gonna be talking today about the important connection between high school sports and mental health, even as people go into adulthood.

Joining me are two dedicated coaches who see firsthand the impact athletics can have on young people's lives. Aaron Cavalline and Ryan Smock. Together we'll explore how sports shape resilience. Teamwork and confidence. Also, we'll be talking about the role athletics play in supporting students' mental health and how challenges like social media injuries and the pandemic have affected today's athletics.

We're also gonna be looking ahead at the future of high school sports and what it means for the next generation. I am so excited to learn from their experiences. On the field, on the court and beyond.  Aaron Cavalline and Ryan Smock. Thank you so very much for joining us today. Thanks for having us. Thank you.

All right, so I thought we'd get started. I think you should let listeners know what you coach, how long you've been coaching it, and then let the listeners know what inspired each of you to become a high school coach. What keeps you motivated to work with student athletes every day? I guess I'll lead off.

I've been the head girls volleyball coach at Harbor Creek High School. This is my 32nd year as the head coach. I'm also the head boys basketball coach here at the high school. As the head coach. It's somewhere in the 15 year range, I believe, but I've coached basketball for.

About 30 years at different levels. For me, becoming a coach was kind of a natural progression.  Not that you get into teaching just to coach, but having been a former college basketball player and being hired right outta college, it kind of just kind of worked itself into the whole equation. For me, I wanted to stay connected to basketball primarily, and then I  fell into the ba or the volleyball job, I should say, and.

My motivation is the kids one of the lines I use is that you get assigned to my social studies class, but you sign up for sports. So they want to be there, they want to get better, they wanna improve. And  that's most of my motivation because when you come in the gym every day, there's energy, and if you're having a slow day, you don't have a choice but to turn it around when you get in the gym, Mr.

Cavalline. All right.  I think that I took a path that was a bit different actually coming out of high school sports and also playing college hum football. I thought that you know, the coaching football was kind of a natural thing, but as I came here, I kind of took a different path and. I have two daughters and my oldest daughter as a freshman, she started doing track and field.

So I started coaching track and field and then our youngest daughter, she played volleyball and actually Coach Smock, had and opening for me and I left track and field and I came over and I started coaching volleyball. And that was think seven or eight years ago. And what keeps me going every day.

It is our kids.  They are just amazing kids. They work hard and most of all, they're a lot of fun. They're a lot of fun, I would say to be with every day.  I mean, It's work and there are our ups and downs, but their attitude and they're hard work and drive, I think really keeps me going.

I am impressed that you say that they are fun to be with every day. That was tongue in cheek.

So we're talking about how participation in high school sports supports mental health. So from each of your perspectives, how does this happen? How does participating in sports support mental health and emotional wellbeing in high school students? I would say from my perspective, if you talk to our athletes, I think our athletes understand the expectations we put in front of 'em.

We're pretty cut and dry with rules and expectations and things of that nature. And I think when kids sign up  they know what they're signing up for. They know what the expectations are. And they're not unrealistic expectations by any means. So I think that promotes some consistency in their life.

They, again, when they show up at the gym, they have a pretty good understanding of what's gonna be taking place  and  what's gonna drive them to be successful. And obviously their ultimate goal is to get on the court in a game situation. The other part about that is we and I, having done this for so long   you do see kids in a different light.

It's not in your classroom. And  you get this. Interact with them a little bit differently. And in doing so, you can gauge or find out what's going on in personal lives a little bit here and there. And then we have recommended kids to the counselors for extra assistance  periodically when we feel the need arises.

So I think that all kind of ties in together.

Coach  Cavalline. All right, so I think the mine was I love how our girls, they actually bond as a team. They have all of their own tiny little groups and cliques, but they're at a game time. They're all working towards our common goal of, actually winning. I did see another side of it because for five years I would ride home uh, with my daughter and, you know, she was a very.

Expressive girl.  To say the least of it. So I would get the dad side and then I would sometimes have to kind of, look at it from a coaching side and do a lot of explaining of, you know, coach and I do this and it's a team effort and there's a bonding process. And I think after time she really got into it and she became a good leader.

And I think that is a part of our kids is, is really watching 'em grow. And that leadership role that  they take on is really the perspective of, our um, team attitude, Yeah. I think there's something about that team dynamic, like it's just not about the physical activity. you know, It's about community.

So like how do you see the team dynamics influencing individual confidence in high school students and resilience and overall mental health? Aaron just said, I think there's a strength in numbers component to it. And you feel comfortable with the girls that you go to the gym with every day, or in my other case with the boys.

What we promote is, even though the girls on the team may not be your best friend socially, there's a respect factor that they're your teammates. And I think they buy into that for the most part. And they understand that  so and so walking around school, wearing a Harbor Creek volleyball shirt is one of us type thing.

So I think there is  natural bond that kind of occurs just because you're in the same. Gymnasium every day doing the same things, and like Aaron said, trying to, you know, the same goal of competing and winning. I think it is, I'm very evident by our former players who still are coming back to watch and, um, to support the program. That kind of tells me that there was a meaningful impact in 'em for coming through the program. Yeah. So I wanted to switch a little bit and talk about social media. It's huge. We know it's huge in for teenagers, and I'll say the one thing that strikes me when I go to a high school's game is I love the fact that the athletes are all in with the game and they're not on their phones, they're not on TikTok.

I feel like that is such a win. So how do you see sports as serving as a positive counterbalance to these social media pressures? Especially with girls? Because we know social media can be very negative to the mental wellbeing in females. I think that's a hard one to address cause we don't have much control over the social media aspect other than just encouraging  good behavior out there.

 When they do participate in social media, and especially if they attach it to the volleyball team. But I think this year with our school going to a no phones policy, I know that doesn't necessarily eliminate social media, but I think maybe if nothing else, it'll. Lessen the impact of the phone and being social for the kids, understanding that  they don't need to be tied to the phone all day.

 Once school's done, they go to practice and so on and so forth. So yeah, I don't, that's a tough one. I personally don't do social media, so I can't talk real in depth about it. Coach Cavalline. Do your, daughters do social media? They're athletes? Yes. They are both on it.  Sometimes more  than I would like and I am not really big into it.

They're on all of these platforms and I see things about it, but they are both older now and it was much less in high school. And I think it's because coach Smock has a standard for our girls and I think that the girls really respect that standard and they're very much aware of things.

They're um posting and doing. I think that curtails their activities at times. Oh, that's good. So something nobody really wants to talk about these days is the COVID pandemic, me included. But I think that there have been lasting changes  especially in schools.

 So, so how did the COVID pandemic  maybe just in brief, how it affected the mental health of your athletes and have you noticed. Lasting changes from the pandemic and the athletes. My recollection of that was sports was unbelievably necessary for these kids at that point in time. They needed sports and it was, it was as good of an outlet as they could have at that time.

I don't really recognize any impacts that carried over from COVID directly with athletes personally. But I do remember, like I said, vividly, kids being ultra excited to be in the gym, to compete and practice and whatnot.

Yeah, probably like a, you don't know what you're missing until it's gone kind of thing. That's part of it. And you had to go through so many protocols back then you know, we were taking temperatures and, you know, everything was being monitored just to be in the gym. And, I mean, we were doing what seems to be crazy now  we're supposed to be wiping down the balls and all these things.

And again, all the protocols were in place to protect everybody. So I guess once they were protected, we were finally allowed to participate. Coach Cavalline, did you feel the same? Yes, I do.  I don't see the differences in sports, in schools. Sure. There was a difference and there was always that time lag for that six month period of kids being at home.

But in sports it was great for them. Yeah. So I'm really curious about  I mean, I only have, I have teenage daughters. So do you notice differences in how sports participation impacts the mental health of girls compared to boys? And what challenges or benefits like do you see for both? I, well, since I do coach both I honestly don't see a, a big difference.

 We've dealt with challenges with both boys and girls, and.  not to be, I don't wanna get specific, obviously, but  the challenges sometimes are quite varied, as you might imagine.  But either way  it's some form of stress and it's  having to deal with whatever that stress is in their life.

And like I said  I don't see a big difference between the both of them. For us boys might be a little more. Open to us as men and the girls might need a little bit of a nudge to go see somebody. Coach Cavalline, have you? I do not coach our boys, but I do know that I really enjoy the girls.

They are a little bit more lighthearted at times. You can joke with them a bit more, but there's definitely more drama and there are a lot of things happening behind the scenes. The coach and I don't always see, but there's always a way to get through it. So that's kind of where I'm at. Yeah, I agree.

So, sports injuries are   a necess, I'm gonna say necessary, but they're just part of being an athlete and they can take an emotional toll. How common are injuries among your athletes and how do they affect their mental health and sense of identity? Because  once they're an athlete, they're an athlete, and if that is taken from them they kind of can't cope.

it depends on what the injury is.  If it's an ankle turn and it's a, week, that's one thing.  Unfortunately we had an ACL tear this year, and that's the entire season. That's a whole nother animal at that point in time. what we do is we try to include that kid as much as possible in whatever role we can include that particular athlete in.

Whether it's helping just assist the team or   give 'em their insight on what they see just from their own perspective, whatever it is. But it's definitely an inclusion that we try to  keep them involved. You know, Just to follow up there on coaches, our athlete that did have a knee tear.

she kind of sees things now from a coaching point of view and she has taken on a different role. And I'm sure that she is extremely disappointed in actually not playing. But this athlete has taken these lemons and made some lemonade by actually doing growth and actually getting other perspective.

And I think as a person it is helping her actually, uh, grow and learn even though it's, a very sad thing to lose her senior year. I love that. So maybe she'll be a coach eventually. Maybe she just cover that. we do talk coaching with her. Like, What, this is what we see. This is maybe some path you might wanna go down with a particular player or  a lineup change or whatever the case may be.

We do try to encourage her to think the game a little differently than maybe she would just being on the court. Yeah. That's awesome. So I am last question, and I'd love to get both of your perspectives on the future. So what do you see as the future of high school sports? I'm just gonna say I, I don't know if high school sports has changed a whole lot.

There, there's areas I think in just life in general that have changed a lot in the last 20, 30, 40 years. But I don't know if high school sports has done that. So where do you see the future in terms of participation and its role in supporting the overall health and wellbeing of students?

I would in, in our community, it's gonna be probably very consistent all the way through, would be my guess. It's gonna be  a fairly large part of the community. It's gonna be a big part of  Harbor Creek and even Erie County for that matter. However, I do see in bigger areas or high school sports changing because there's so much specialization and there's so much club or travel or all these other alternatives that kids and parents look at as a fast track to college scholarships or professional athletics or whatever it is.

More and more of that seems to be popping up all the time. and then to be perfectly honest, this is a little bit of a outlier, but the NIL money available in colleges I'm sure is gonna be very appealing to a lot of people going forward and already is for that matter. Again, here at Harbor Creek, I'm not so sure it'll be as much of a factor but we do have kids leaving the school to go specialize and that does happen.

And then as far as the mental health aspect of that, I think that's. I think that's challenging when you put younger athletes in super intense roles. So there's a, the select few that can probably handle that. When I say super intense, obviously training for one thing solely  day after day.

So I think the, you have to be careful with the kids' makeup that can  handle that role or handle that position. Yeah  I think this is really an interesting intersection, right? 'cause there's less student loan, federal student loan money that's gonna be available to individuals. So is that added pressure or I don't know.

It like, that's an interesting question. I guess we'll see. Coach Cavalline, I'd love to hear your thoughts.  So I kind of look at it here in two ways. A great example is I have a, uh, nephew who played high school football and lived in the Syracuse area, and he was a very good athlete. His entire family picked up and they moved to Florida and he's playing at a prep school now.

And those things because in Florida they played football uh, year round and he was already recruited as a high school sophomore for college. So. Coach said that NIL Money and schools that are specializing. It isn't always noticed here in like Harbor Creek and Erie, but it is happening all over the country  and kids move and two, I see that compared to like 25 years ago when Coach and I played or more, there weren't.

A young travel club team for every single sport. Now these kids are involved in club volleyball, travel softball, travel basketball. They are doing some kind of a sport and parents are traveling and spending a lot of money and time, and I think that's a big difference in sports now than it was many, many years ago when I'm coach and I played in high school.

Yeah, I would agree. Aaron Cavalline and Ryan Smock, thank you very much for joining us today. All right, thank you. Thank you for having us.

Thank you for tuning in to Taking Healthcare by Storm: Industry Insights with Quality Insights Medical Director Dr. Jean Storm. We hope that you enjoyed this episode. If you found value in what you heard, please consider subscribing to our podcast on your favorite platform.

If you have any topics or guests you'd like to see on future episodes, you can reach out to us on our website. We would love to hear from you.

So, until next time, stay curious, stay compassionate, and keep taking healthcare by storm.