This year, Highland has added a new sports psychology class, taught by Ted Sierer who also teaches language arts, AP psychology, and coaches wrestling.  The half year class has over 35 students in each period, which nearly reaches the number of students enrolled in the AP psychology classes offered at Highland.

“The feedback I’ve gotten about the class is pretty good,” Sierer said.  “The students have said that it’s stuff that they can use, which is something every teacher wants to hear.”

The main purpose of the class is to help Highland students learn tactics to help their mental readiness in sports, and then apply it to the sports they participate in.  Along with helping students learn how to stay positive and focused in their sports, Sierer strives to help the sports psychology and AP psychology classes help each other grow rather than competing with each other.

“What I hope is that people would use both classes to feed one into the other,” Sierer said.  “I hope that they assist each other and one’s not taking away from the other.”

Sierer believes that having both classes could lead to students taking one psychology class and realizing their interest in other branches of psychology, and ultimately hopes that all Highland students will take a psychology class to better understand the way that we work.

Sports psychology is more than just an interesting class, though, it is also a rapidly growing industry.  Most if not all professional teams now have a sports psychologist working with the players in an attempt to gain a competitive edge.  There are even sports psychologists that are not associated with a school, and simply help clients of any age who schedule an appointment.

“The industry is growing really fast, because in our culture, sports are a big deal,” Sierer said.  “We’re always trying to get an advantage, and that’s where sports psychologists come in.”

Sierer plans to soon help students outside of just wrestling realize the importance of mental readiness when competing in sports, and the sports psychology class is just a first step in his hope of giving Highland sports a helpful advantage.