Palmerio 1

Jacob Palmerio
Caton
UWRT 150
November 18, 2015

Descriptive Title
Currently, people are encouraged to exercise daily, which came about from the obesity
epidemic. Everyone is told about the physical health benefits that comes from exercise, such as
how it strengthens the muscles, can increase heart health and longer life. However, not much
focus is put on the mental benefits from routine exercise, such as reduced anxiety and reduced
risks of mental illness. With people who live busy lives, it would be beneficial to have a way to
calm down during the week, and starting the habit of exercise early could help a person stay
with the habit later in life. High school athletes could therefore benefit from participating in a
sport. The cross-country team of Harwood Union High School allows students exactly that.
This team from central Vermont competes at the Division-II High School level and has been very
successful throughout its more than forty years of activity; the girls and boys team, combined,
have won 35 state championships and qualified for the New England Cross-Country
championship race many times. This involves a large time commitment, yet team members are
able to balance a school course load and social life. Members of the team exhibit lower stress
and anxiety, brought about by the regular running routine. Furthermore, being apart of a team
and having an exercise schedule increases an individuals self-concept and self-esteem. Being
a part of the Harwood Union cross-country team tends to positively affect the members life by
lowering stress, increasing self-esteem and positively affecting members social life.

Lowered Stress and Anxiety

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Its important for students to learn how to manage stress and anxiety, but being in a constant
state of either is not healthy and part of learning to handle those situations is finding ways to
reduce stress and anxiety. Studies have found that physical activity, such as running, is able to
reduce stress and anxiety. According to Calfas et al, Petruzzello et al. (10) found that only
aerobic physical activity produced reductions in anxiety and that the effects were generally
independent of subject characteristics.(p417) This would explain the positive effects of running
on a students quality of life. With a lower stress levels, students can enjoy themselves, and
focus on schoolwork. Calfas et al also state Eight of the 11 studies addressing anxiety/stress
variables found a positive relationship or experimental effect of activity such that physical
activity was associated with reductions in anxiety and stress.(p416-7) Although it is not
completely conclusive that physical activity lowers stress, there is sufficient evidence supporting
the claim. Scott Douglas, the senior content editor for Runnerswold.com, states that runners
experience lower levels of stress, especially if the level of involvement is between 2.5 and 7.5
hours per week. However, it has been found that these effects from physical exercise in excess
of 7.5 hours per week start to decrease, until about 25 hours per week, where the effects are
the same as sedentary people(Douglas). 25 hours per week is a lot of exercise and, with two
hours maximum of practice in one day, which never consists of two hours of continuous running,
not many athletes on the Harwood cross country team exceed 8 hours per week, and no one
runs 25 hours. Considering this, all members who attend practice regularly experience lower
levels of stress. This allows them to enjoy themselves more by being calmer and allows them to
focus on academics as well as their social lives. Some may argue that they could use other
sorts of relaxation techniques that may be less time consuming, but it has been found that
physical fitness training may produce improvements in physiological responses to stress
comparable to or greater than those produced by some relaxation techniques.(Taylor et al, 199)
Because the team is centered around physical fitness, the stress reduction is significant, which
is a positive effect on the members lives.

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During interviews, everyone stated that being a part of the Harwood cross country team
is a large time commitment, but they all mentioned that it made them learn to manage their time
accordingly so that they could focus on school and be with family and friends. Even though
being a member of the team takes a lot of time, 51.7% of respondents answered It regularly
affects what you can and can't do during the entire week to the question What sort of time
commitment is required in order to be on the team? in a survey of current and former members.
The members learn to handle this so that they can focus on other parts of their lives because
32.9% answered It has a positive/beneficial effect to the question How does the time
commitment affect your academics? and only 6.8% total answered It has a
negative/detrimental effect and It usually has a negative/detrimental effect, but occasionally
has a positive or neutral effect. The members are also able to be socially active as 53.4%
answered It has a positive/beneficial effect to the question How does the time commitment
affect your social life? and only 3.4% answered It usually has a negative/detrimental effect,
but occasionally has a positive or neutral effect. The members of the team are clearly able to
focus on other parts of their lives while being a part of the team. Even though being on the
team creates a support network for them, lowered stress and anxiety from likely allows the
student-athletes to become well-rounded individuals that are socially and physically active and
can remain caught up with academics.

Greater Self-Concept and Self-Esteem

During high school, a time where many feel judged by all, many students are in need of
improving their self-esteem and self-concept. Studies have found that physical activity is able to
improve a persons self-esteem. Calfas et al found that, in terms of psychological effects, the
most consistent effect was for self-esteem/self-concept and anxiety/stress variables.(p416-7)
and that ... self-concept has been described as the variable with the highest payoff in physical
activity and personality research (14).(p417) This increase is important for youth because of

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the judgement associated with the teenage years and it could help them develop as a person. It
is important to note that excessive exercise can be detrimental to the effects.(Taylor) Excessive
running has been characterized as neurotic (79) and akin to the excessive running evident in
many anorectic patients (80,81).(Taylor) Based on the aforementioned range of time spent
running, it should be safe to assume that 2.5 to 7.5 hours of running per week would not be
considered neurotic since it was claimed by Douglas to be the ideal range for the mental
benefits associated with running. This means that the majority of the runners of the Harwood
cross country team are likely to experience higher levels of self-esteem and self confidence.
The athletes are more likely to act in accordance with what makes them happy, which would
likely improve their quality of life, mentally.
As many interviewees state, they have to work hard in order to be successful, whether it
be on the course or in school. They claim to have learned this from being on the team and
apply it to other parts of their lives, and, because of the time commitment, they have to choose
how to spend their time. They most likely spend their time on what they want to do, rather than
waste it on what they may consider unimportant. It would make sense that they would have
some sort of confidence in what they want. Many members are part of other organizations
outside of the team, so the team may not be their biggest priority, but they are able to be apart
of others that they may enjoy even more. The increase in self-esteem from physical activity
likely helps them choose what they need to spend their time on so that they are happy. Perhaps
this is why none of the respondents of the survey regretted joining the team. Many of the
interviewees comment on how supportive the team is, which would be very beneficial to others
self-esteem. The members of the team are able to focus on what they enjoy, which allows them
to positively affect other parts of their high school career.
Self-confidence is a large part of being a competitive runner. In figure 1, as the boys
varsity team prepares for the start of a race, they have to trust that their training has worked and
that they are ready to race.

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As they recite Kerrigans Armys chant, the team mentally prepares for the race. Although the
large focus is on physical fitness, the team members need to be self-confident, not just to a
have a good season personally, but to be a competitive team. The self-confidence from
physical activity helps the teams success as well. It is important that the members gain selfesteem not only for success as a runner but for other parts of their live as well.

Social Life and Academics

It would make sense that running would have a negative effect on academics, considering that it
takes time during the week that could be spent on studying and working on projects, however it
also reduces stress, which may benefit the runners academics. According to a survey of fiftyeight former and current high school cross-country runners, 51.7% answered It regularly affects
what you can and can't do during the entire week. to the question What sort of time
commitment is required in order to be on the team? With the next highest percentage being
31.0% answeringIt sometimes affects what you can and can't do during the entire week. It is
obvious that there is a time commitment persent when running, however, to the question How

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does the time commitment affect your academics?, 32.8% answered It has a
positive/beneficial effect., 25.9% answered It has a neutral effect; there is no effect and 24.1%
answered It usually has a neutral effect, but occasionally has a negative or positive effect. It
would seem that being a part of a high school cross country usually has a neutral effect on
academics but could have a positive effect. In fact, when asked How supportive or
unsupportive is the rest of the team with respect to academics?, 55.2% answered Very
Supportive, 21.1% answered Somewhat supportive and 13.8% answered Neutral. This may
seem strange since it is a sports team, but they are all students and being on the team could be
a form of networking. In an interview, a current captain stated that The team is very supportive
of academics and older members are always willing to help younger members. The
upperclassmen have already taken the classes and, thanks to the connection through the team,
the younger members can ask for help. These responses are consistent with what is expected
when discussing the mental benefits of physical activity. It is expected that lower stress and
anxiety coupled with greater self-esteem and self-concept prevent a detrimental effect from the
time commitment on academics. The necessity to learn how to manage ones time is an
important part of being on a sports team and is brought about from the large amount of time
spent in practice each week, likely catalyzed by the lower stress levels and greater self-esteem.
In an interview, a captain stated Being on the team has a great affect on my academics,
because it forces good time management and has taught me the importance of hard work. My
classes are a priority, but I rarely have to sacrifice cross country for school. All of the
interviewees stated that they have to avoid procrastination in order to stay caught up with their
classes.
It would make sense that a large time commitment can have a large impact on ones
social life, due to less time to spend with friend. However, the survey revealed that 53.4% of
respondents reported that cross-country has a positive effect on their social life, and 22.4%
reported that it usually has a positive effect, but sometimes has a neutral or negative effect.

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Interviewees note that Fridays can be boring because they have to stay home due to the
Saturday races. However, they also state that it is fun to be with the team. Clearly the
members of the team are able to maintain friendships, but they also likely create new
friendships with other members of the team; they can have an active social life while running
with the team. Eime et al discuss the positive effects on social skills that arise from sport
participation. This is important for high school students because they build a network of people
that they can rely on for support. Although being a member of the cross country may not
positively affect academics, but it it is very capable of helping with the members social lives.

Methods
Current and previous members of the team were contacted in order to conduct the survey. The
survey was posted to the Harwood Cross Country Facebook page so that members could
access it. The survey asked about time commitment, affects on social and academic life,
supportiveness of the team and enjoyment of being on the team(Questions are included at the
end). Unfortunately, a volunteer response survey had to be conducted due to time restraints; it
would have been difficult to gather a random sample of fifty members of the team and contact
them within the given time restraints. A volunteer response survey allows many bias to be
present in the results because the sample of those taking the time to fill out the survey would
not be an accurate representation of the whole. The interviews were conducted on five of the
current captains of the team. Because the team is in Vermont and the interviewer was in New
York, the interview was conducted through email. This inhibited the quality of the interviews, but
allowed the distance barrier to be overcome. The author is a former member of the Harwood
Cross Country team, which may account for some of the bias that may be present.

Discussion

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Due to data collected from primary and secondary research, it can be concluded that being a
member of the Harwood Union High School cross country team is likely to have beneficial
effects on other aspects of the members lives, such as social lives, academics and mental wellbeing. It may not be the case for everyone, but it appears as though members of the team
experience a form of networking that helps them form friendships and build habits that are
conducive to helping with academics, with the physical exercise helping with mental well-being.
Members of the team that experience these benefits also find themselves with a greater quality
of life because of the enjoyment of being a part of the team and positive effects on other parts of
their lives.

Survey Questions

How supportive or unsupportive is the rest of the team with respect to running?
How supportive or unsupportive is the rest of the team with respect to academics?
What sort of time commitment is required in order to be on the team?
How does the time commitment affect your academics?
How does the time commitment affect your social life?
Why did you join the team?

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Do you enjoy or not enjoy being on the team?
You are on(Varsity, JV, back and forth)
What's your gender?
Do you regret joining the team?

Works Cited
Calfas, Karen J., and Wendell C. Taylor. "Effects of Physical Activity on Psychological Variables
in
Adolescents." Pediatric Exercise Science 6 (1994): 406-23. Print.
Douglas, Scott. "How Much Exercise Is Best for Mental Health?" Runner's World (2012).
Runner's World. Runner's World. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.
Eime, Rochelle M, Janet A Young, Jack T Harvey, Melanie J Charity, and Warren R Payne. "A
Systematic Review of the Psychological and Social Benefits of Participation in Sport for
Children and Adolescents: Informing Development of a Conceptual Model of Health

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through Sport."International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity 10
(2013): 98. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.
International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.
Taylor, C B, J F Sallis, and R Needle. The Relation of Physical Activity and Exercise to Mental
Health. Public Health Reports 100.2 (1985): 195202. Print.