Joel Hannan still remembers sitting in the locker room after the final hockey game of his high school career. His equipment soaked from helmet to toe, ice melting off his skates, wondering if he would ever take the ice again after he graduated.
It’s been nearly four and a half years since Hannan chose to hang up his skates. That time, it was for good. He is one of the many examples of how many former high school athletes struggle to adapt to life after sports.
“I think for a lot of athletes, there’s the competitive element of being involved in sport,” said University of Alberta professor Billie Strean. “But then there’s all the other things that go with sports. And if you lose it all, that’s a much bigger transition. It’s a much bigger challenge.”
Hannan, a recent Carleton University grad, now lives in his hometown of Toronto. He still misses the hours of traveling to tournaments and the thrill of on-ice competition. Even after losing the first half of his senior season of high school hockey to a teacher’s strike, he can still feel the excitement and camaraderie of playing alongside his former teammates.
“Playing hockey in Toronto as a guy is the most competitive you’ll find hockey anywhere in the world,” Hannan said. “I was playing at a very high level, so it was stressful and competitive. But I enjoyed it.”
Although he cared more for his performance on the ice, stress would eventually find its way into the classroom. As a team requirement, every member had to maintain at least a ‘B’ average or better in order to play for the team. Those who didn’t make the cut would be benched.
After graduating from Toronto’s Richview Collegiate Institute in 2013, Hannan could see his interest in hockey was starting to diminish. Ever since he was a kid, hockey had consumed a great portion of both his family and school life.
“You either get drafted when you’re 16, or you don’t get drafted into the [Ontario Hockey League], or you go play junior. And neither of those things happened for me,” Hannan said. “So, the competitive side of hockey was kind of done. And then I realized that it had consumed so much of my life, my interests just started shipping elsewhere.”
After completing his first year of commerce at Carleton, Hannan opted to take up competitive beach volleyball the following summer. Hannan’s decision to pursue a new sport has opened his eyes to a lifestyle more suitable to his character, which still allows him to be competitive without experiencing the fatigue which became an everyday feeling during his time as a hockey player.
Last December, Hannan was invited to attend his first-ever tryout for the Canadian men’s national beach volleyball team.
“I was definitely at one point just dipping my hands in as many things as possible,” he said. “But after hockey, I definitely wasn’t asking myself like: ‘okay, what am I going to commit [to]? What am I going to obsess over next?’ ”
In 2015, a study by Kelsey Kendellen and Martin Camiré on 14 former high school athletes from Eastern and Southern Ontario analyzed how they transitioned to life after sports.
Many of the athletes agreed that playing sports helped them in acquiring both disciplinary and social skills, that are crucial for life after high school.
One participant noted how being put in a team leadership role at a young age was able to help him “become a leader and teach people things, regardless of age.”
The study also revealed how senior players on the team would act aggressively around rookies in order to show their “power and dominance over younger players.” Others believed high school sports negatively influenced their academic performance due to the stress of playing competitively as well. One participant said he dedicated more time to being an athlete than a student because of the popularity they gained from being associated with a sports team.
Strean, a professor in the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation, said he has focused his research on sports psychology, and their effects on former high school athletes during their transition.
Over time though, Strean said he has found student-athletes often find it harder to move on from their “athletic identity” and establish their own self-identity after sports.
“If you finished high school and say: okay, I played sports. I was an athlete. That was part of how I saw myself, and that’s a part of [how] others saw me, but then you go on, and you’re 18, and start doing different things. It may be that it’s a less substantial transition,” said Strean.
Before becoming a university professor, Strean played sports in high school and was a National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) athlete for the University of Illinois. He said he realizes how difficult it can be to leave sports behind.
“If you consider when you go through those key years of college, university age, you’re forming beliefs, forming new relationships,” Strean said. “You’re establishing your identity to a greater extent, and it’s who you are.”
Thomas Murphy, a second-year criminology student at Carleton, was not part of the study, but he can relate to many stories of those past athletes involved. Murphy said without the experiences of playing high school hockey and volleyball, both his life and mental health could have taken a much different path.
“I would be much more introverted . . . I would have a lot less meaningful connections in my life . . . I would have been a lot less social,” Murphy said. “Having that bunch of guys on your team, it really helps with the social aspect of things.”
Born and raised in the small town of North Bay, Ont., Murphy’s high school career ended in a less than ideal fashion. After enduring injury-riddled seasons in 2014 and 2015 that included a broken wrist in hockey, and a bruised shoulder in volleyball, he knew going into his senior year, he would have to make every last second count.
“I really came to terms with it at the end of Grade 11, after I finished my hockey season and after I finished the volleyball season. Knowing that I wasn’t going back for a victory lap,” Murphy said. “My first thought was: this is it. I know I wasn’t good enough to play university level in both hockey and volleyball.”
Despite giving up his life as a student-athlete, his desire to recapture the competitive edge that followed him throughout high school couldn’t be restrained. Since arriving at Carleton, Murphy has joined the school’s kendo club and has continued to play both hockey and volleyball in intramural leagues.
However, if there was one thing Murphy has missed the most since his high school days, it’s the level of competition.
“It’s definitely not as tough as it was in high school,” Murphy said. “You’re missing that group of people, and the rivalries, and stuff like that.”
For now, Murphy said he has come to terms that high school sports will most likely be the highlight of his athletic career. He appreciates the leadership skills he was able to learn from being an assistant captain for his high school’s hockey team, and how the traits he learned from sports helped him throughout his first year at Carleton.
“I think that was one of my bigger assets as a player versus my actual skill,” Murphy said. “Just that mentality of always being super positive, and trying to guide the flow of things and be that leader in a group.”
Photo by Dan Robertson
