Poncho Tzankov: Varsity-level Soccer Coach
-Monta Vista High School Varsity soccer coach
-Kennedy Middle School soccer coach
-Coach at Cupertino FC
-Played at a High-Level in Bulgaria and Germany
How widespread do you think mental health issues are in high school athletics?
“This depends on how you define mental health issues. There are serious mental health issues and smaller mental health issues which are more like behavior or character flaws that are not that threatening. The serious mental health issues - people who are really in trouble - are not really widespread in high school sports because sports, in a way, contribute to the healing of mental health issues. Whoever practices sports is immune to a majority of serious mental health issues. There might be minor mental health issues - I call them character flaws - but sometimes in the U.S, they are called mental health issues. Some people may call them mental health issues but they are not really mental health issues in my opinion - they are just character flaws. From this point of view, there are a lot of character flaws and very few mental health issues in high school kids practicing sports.”
What do you think are the main causes of these mental health issues?
“Mostly, stress. Not just in school but also from the reality of different things that happen, which for teenagers, can be very dramatic at times. While growing up, people start to act differently in many ways and are exposed to many different shocks. The biggest mental shock I’ve seen is not making tryouts. A lot of kids come but some cannot make tryouts. This situation happened this year with one of the kids. He did not expect to not make tryouts. He could have had some mental health issues or it could just be stress. He could not accept this until the end. It was very hard for him to accept it, after spending around ten years playing club soccer. He was cut mostly because of his attitude. Not because of skills. Another player was cut because of his skills but he showed a good attitude towards improving and thus improved, which is why he earned his spot on the team. This doesn’t usually happen - it was an exception. But I saw him every Saturday and every Sunday (any time of day) practicing and trying to do better. I really like this attitude. The previous athlete did not show anything like this. He would just argue with me every time and confront me in places outside the stadium. I understood his point but he could not accept the reality. The stress that comes from this contradiction between reality and your perception/expectations leads to mental health issues and a lot of stress. But as I said, it’s mostly character flaws - it’s a part of the growing-up process. It’s not really that serious to me. It’s just the way people grow up and develop as human beings. We have a lot of stressful situations like this during one’s teenage years.”
What specific mental health issues do you think are most widespread?
“Stress is the cause of the mental health issues but not a mental health issue itself. It can cause anxiety, depression, and rebellious feelings about reality (a disconnect from reality in general). These are mental health issues but are mild in comparison to severe mental health issues like autism - this is something that needs to be treated. The main reason for mental health issues in high schoolers is stress. Sometimes, it can be family situations. Sometimes, it’s genetics. But, in general, all those kinds of situations mostly go away after teenage years. When people grow up, they learn how to control and deal with their mental health issues and can better themselves. So, very few of them are very serious but whatever has happened in one’s teenage years or early childhood remains for life. Part of my job is to show the problems to the kids and show them the ways to solve these problems and live with mental health issues while leading healthy lives (without being severely affected by these mental health issues). I achieve all of this by going for a common goal, which unites efforts and the whole team together - our common goal this year was to become state champions. A common goal is very important because it focuses efforts and gives priorities to people - it tells them what’s important and what’s not. If it’s a healthy goal, it heals a lot of problems in not just teenagers, but also adults who work in a company and teams, and professional athletes. We have to have a goal to unite people or the team can get in a lot of trouble - mental health issues can become more prevalent.”
Do you think mental health is discussed enough whether it be at school, on teams, or in general?
“I don’t discuss it too much. In our meetings, soccer training, and games, sometimes I may go in-depth about certain things but I never really call them mental health issues. I tell the players that it’s normal and how they’re supposed to feel - it’s something you have to overcome to achieve the common goal in a healing way. But, and I am very observant of the people and the situation, we had some players this season with some mental health issues. One player had mental health issues - his mom admitted this to me. There are some others on the team that also have mental health issues but I’m taking care of them and talking to them differently - I’m trying to teach them differently just to make sure that this doesn’t cause any further problems for them. I also try and focus on healing. I don’t know about the rest of the high school and I don’t know about what’s going on in the classroom. We have counselors who are supposed to be taking care of these things but I’m not sure if it’s enough or not. On the soccer field, it’s enough - I’ve never had any major mental health issues on the team except once. I failed to take care of one particular athlete’s mental health issues which was not entirely my fault because, at the time, I was coaching together with another coach. This player jumped on me and started using cuss words - it was scary for me. I knew that I wasn’t the problem but it was very unpleasant. We decided to save the player - we didn’t report him to the school authorities and he turned out to be fully healed a few weeks later. He improved and became a very successful player but there was an issue. So, controlling mental health issues in high school - especially on varsity and seniors - is a huge challenge for coaches. We admitted this and we worked on it and then we tried to heal and improve every person. I don’t know if this is enough but we’re working very hard on this. This is one of our major challenges.”
What is your advice on dealing with performance anxiety?
“This is a very interesting question. Everyone has performance anxiety. Every single person has performance anxiety. I wouldn’t say that’s a mental health issue but a part of life - how to show the best of your ability when and where it matters. Everyone has to grow up and make sure he/she is at their best whenever and wherever necessary. People have to learn how to do this - it’s a practical thing. You have to practice to learn this. Soccer is a great way to practice this. I’m pushing the players hard to do this by not letting them play much if they don’t. This is a strong motivator but everyone has to learn this. Imagine you go to a job interview and not be performing at your best or if you go to a college interview and you mess up because you were having anxiety. This is life. People who are examining you - in the interviews - don’t care if you have issues or not. They take you based on what you show them. So this is a struggle. Some adults - even those in their 60s - have this issue. But this is life. Life is hard and so everyone needs to learn this. I think that sports help a lot in terms of people learning this. Once you understand and realize that any anxiety prevents you from being who you are and showing what you have, the performance anxiety disappears. But how are people going to realize this and have the confidence to ignore it? Soccer. It’s one of the great advantages of soccer or any other sports and theatre or other clubs. They can help people learn how to resolve this so that they can be at their top performance and be well prepared to be a fully-functional adult.”
Can you speak a little bit about burnout and injury?
“There is a huge difference between burnout - which is a mental issue - and injury - which is a physical issue. I take care of the mental burnout so that no one is burned out more or less. But, injuries are things that I cannot take care of. Our athletic trainer takes care of the medical part of injuries and he’s doing a very good job of managing this. If I see any kind of injuries on my team, I send the players to the athletic trainer. I’m obliged to do this because of my contract but I also trust him 100% because I know that he will give the best options to the players. Many players avoid going to him because they know that he’s going to stop them from playing - that’s not okay and very dangerous. I push them constantly to go to the athletic trainer. He can take care of the medical injuries - I’m not worried about that. However, mental burnout is a common thing. It typically happens when players have too much stress. It’s my job to regulate the psychological stress and burnout in the team. It’s my job to prevent mental burnout. I think I am doing a very good job. Nevertheless, sometimes you have some situations - do you remember when I was talking to you about the importance of winning certain games and showing what we’ve learned. This caused some people to feel pressure and some mental burnout to some degree. Then, I told the team to forget about what they had to do and just focus on having fun and making me proud. This resolved the issues - I like to call it the “recreational mode”. Sometimes, you have to switch to this “recreational mode” to prevent burnout. So, mental burnout isn’t that major a problem but it is very common. I do this every season to help with mental burnout. Some players cannot handle the pressure and gravity of the situation - it’s just too much. This is why I try and ease it on the team but the team has to learn. I have to put you through this to help you see the reality - you cannot escape the reality. You just have to learn how to deal with it. That’s part of my job - teaching the team lessons on how to deal with the seriousness of the situation. My job is not only to teach you skills and tactics. That’s actually a smaller portion of my job.”
The Monta Vista soccer team had the pressure to reach CIF (California Scholastic Federation) this year. How do you think this pressure impacted the mental health of the team?
“This was because of me - I put the pressure on the team. It was very positive, though. I know that the team felt the pressure and that it was a problem and maybe that was a part of the reason we lost. This year, the situation changed. We were doing very well but this year, the situation changed. Typically, we should have made CCS with the points we had but we couldn’t because something changed in the CCS rules. But, this unites the team in a great way. You forget about the crazy and small fights between players or between a player and the coach because if the team has a common goal, they start to understand that the only way to achieve it is to work together. This can be very positive for a team. I did, however, have some big goals, and the small goals we have usually come naturally. We almost became champions, which has never been the case. This was the first time Monta Vista had been second in the league. We’re usually fifth or sixth. We achieved a lot of things this year if we look back on our performance from the past few years. I’m very proud of the team but we wouldn’t have been able to achieve those amazing results without having a huge goal. The goal made everyone focus and work hard, and gave purpose to every practice and every game. I know for you guys it may seem like stress but I think it is healing stress. It helps a lot and you learn how to work in teams in the best possible way.”
Can you describe the experience of athletes who aim for college-level athletics? What do you think their experience is and the stress and anxiety that comes from playing at that level?
“So, if you want to play college soccer, you don’t necessarily have to be the best player. You just have to know how to sell yourself. Just make all the video clips, put them together, send them to as many coaches as possible, and follow up with whoever responds to you. That’s what one player on the team did - he’s not the best player on the team but he was smart with his college soccer plans. Another player (my son) was late with this - he did it in June which was too late. You have to be starting in February or March. But, he got recruited by a Spanish academy because they pulled the video from an out-of-state tournament he had gone to in June. They bought the video, saw how he played, and invited him to come play at their academy. My intent for him was never to play soccer after high school but it happened. The important thing is that, at this level, there is not really any anxiety or stress. You just have to sell yourself. But, whenever you go to college ID camps or tryouts - every college organizes this - you have to show what you can do. That is a part of the anxiety and they’ve already learned - through a lot of previous stress and experiences - to not have any performance anxiety. They can do the best they can whenever they have to. So, it’s nothing special - you just have to sell yourself as much as possible with good videos and good video clipping skills. You have to understand that my goal in coaching Monta Vista soccer is not to promote athletes to play college soccer. That’s why I’m not pushing any of the juniors right now. My goal is to make good team players who play quality soccer - the goal is for them to learn how to work in a team, be creative, and never give up. It’s to get them to have very strong mental capabilities in the game for them to never give up or cave in and push hard no matter the score. This is very difficult but it will make you very good people. It’s going to be useful in life. This is the major goal of the high school athletics program at Monta Vista. If you play college soccer, that’s fine. If it helps you get into the college you want to go to, that’s fine. It’s more the club coaches’ responsibility rather than the high school coaches’ responsibility.”
We want to help people be more aware of these issues in athletics. What do you think we should do to make people more aware of these issues? Is it just talking to teams and discussing mental health or videos online.
“Having videos online or talking to people isn’t going to help much. Mental health issues are best treated by professionals that are specialized in this field. The mental health issues are not to be treated by talking to them - there are some psychologists and psychoanalysts that are very good at this. The way I resolve mental health issues in high school athletics is by talking to the people - not about mental health issues - but rather about something else. I then give ideas on how to handle and deal with stress to become successful for the team. This unified goal can help them deal with these issues. That’s the way I work with it. Otherwise, mental health issues may go into a spiral in a very unhelpful way. So, our varsity soccer team has a very good and healthy atmosphere. It is much better than in the years past. In the years past, I have seen people crying, people beating each other, and people injuring each other on purpose (one guy jumped on me and almost tried to hit me). This is a very bad atmosphere - that’s a breeding ground for mental health issues. What you are experiencing right now after a couple of years of me coaching and creating traditions - there is no such thing. It’s just a pleasure to be together. We have a common goal - whether we achieve it or not, everybody tries hard and you know that everybody tries hard. It’s a pleasure to be there. Everybody’s excited to play and happy and all of the strange behavior goes away - I didn’t let a player join the team because I could sense the toxicity there. This type of situation/player can poison the atmosphere and lead to a lot of issues. This is why I told this player that he wasn’t ready to be a champion - he never understood this. I have a feeling that I will have to deal with this next season - he’s a very good kid but he just has a little bit of this toxic character and you can see this in your club. Santa Clara Sporting is famous for these kinds of players and situations. It all comes from spoiled kids - they’re very good players and that’s why coaches don’t say anything. It collects over the years. This is not the case at Monta Vista - I take care of all the strange situations. Everything is handled in a way where we have positive situations that improve and develops everyone properly. I always try and help everyone. One player had some mental health issues but did I talk to him about mental health issues or put him on the spot? No, we like to joke around all the time and the team loves him. He became the heart of the team. This is the way I resolve these kinds of situations. Sometimes, it’s possible and sometimes it’s impossible. We have some good coaches and counselors - one of the counselors I know is amazingly talented and he’s much better than me at handling all these kinds of issues.”