{"id":113645,"date":"2026-04-07T12:54:47","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T17:54:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/snapraise.com\/?p=113645"},"modified":"2026-04-07T12:54:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T17:54:47","slug":"esports-and-stress-management-expert-dr-richard-woodruff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.snapraise.com\/blog\/esports-and-stress-management-expert-dr-richard-woodruff\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&#038;A with Esports and Stress Management Expert, Dr. Richard Woodruff"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Dr. Richard Woodruff discusses how education-based esports programs can help students with stress and create community.<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Student stress has persisted far beyond the pandemic.<\/li>\n<li>Schools can use esports to create new places for growth and collaboration based on student interest.<\/li>\n<li>Esports helps foster better social integration in class and at home.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Dr. Richard Woodruff, the social emotional wellness coordinator for the Stockton school district and commissioner of the Central California esports Leagues, discusses how students today face high levels of stress and how building communities with activities like esports can help them navigate through it.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ratio ratio-16x9\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Building an eSports Team Dr  Richard Woodruff  | Leading Edge Podcast Clips\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Pj_qMn4fWlo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><em>What is the average high schooler dealing with in terms of stress and social wellness?<\/h3>\n<p><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Dr. Richard Woodruff:<\/strong> Wow, that is a powerful question. And to echo what a lot of people are probably feeling on a smaller level, and maybe even more broadly, is our kids are hurting. The American Psychological Association, they recently purported that this is probably going to be an extensive pandemic that could last until 2030 as far as mental health being of greater importance.  <\/p>\n<p>Basically, we need to be paying attention. We need to be all hands-on deck. We need to be putting more into this, at least until then, if not indefinitely, from it. And then I\u2019m hearing from other colleagues and people in academics of middle school\u2013specifically fourth, fifth, and sixth grade\u2013are showing particularly high suicidal tendencies, which makes perfect sense, too, because as you\u2019re going from the fourth, fifth to the sixth, seventh grade, that\u2019s when emotions start really start percolating.  <\/p>\n<p>You start going from being in a little pond to being in a bigger pond. And these kids were on lockdown for a couple of years, roughly, if not longer, and having to jump into the social emotional deep end without that ramp. It has just got to be so difficult for them, especially in a landscape that\u2019s not as supportive as it probably could be.  <\/p>\n<p>I feel like I\u2019ve been talking about this stuff for years and people are like okay, you\u2019re just excited because it\u2019s what you do. But now that this happened, they\u2019re like, wait a minute, tell us more.  <\/p>\n<h3><em>What role do education-based programs play in serving stress management and social wellness?<\/h3>\n<p><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Dr. Richard Woodruff:<\/strong> I think it has huge potential and if you\u2019re not doing it, it\u2019s a huge, missed potential. To speak my authentic truth is that I barely made it through high school because of super rough things that were happening in my home life. But I was still a gamer. If there had been any opportunity like this school, it would\u2019ve been my oasis. That\u2019s where I would\u2019ve gone.   <\/p>\n<p>When we first started doing this in schools, we started because we\u2019d had conversations with the CIF while working with them. And so, we\u2019re mirroring their rules too. Academics, attendance, behavior. So, we put them in place and some students who weren\u2019t showing up thought that they could just join the team because they were the best players in this game, or that gamer had the best role, the best in League of Legends, something like that. But they didn\u2019t meet requirements, so they couldn\u2019t participate in the fall league. Just the shell shock that came from that. But the community was there to support them in saying, \u201cHey, there\u2019s a spring league. How do we turn this around? How can we support you?\u201d  <\/p>\n<p>To see students just totally turn it around, start showing up, start putting in that extra effort and then they make the team the following season and it\u2019s like a homecoming celebration where the community comes together and welcomes them. You would\u2019ve thought they\u2019d won the championships just by being able to play. It was an amazing thing to see.   <\/p>\n<p>Now that we\u2019ve\u2013I say we, because there\u2019s a lot of us that make this happen all throughout the state and even in other states\u2013I\u2019ve been hearing lots of wonderful stories. We find that typically about a third of every student population at every school, high school specifically, that we talk to, they\u2019re gamers, like hardcore gamers, they\u2019re putting in hours a day for a specific game, if not multiple games. We find that 75% of students play games, but maybe a little more leisurely. That\u2019s a huge population of students who may not have that link that connects them to school or anything. I remember how I was, before I learned the joy of playing with other people purposefully, it was every person for themself.  <\/p>\n<p>We were elitist jerks. We weren\u2019t very kind to others because we lived in silos. It was, \u201cHow good am I, I\u2019m not really caring about how good all of you are because I\u2019m probably better than you.\u201d That\u2019s the attitude we had, and that\u2019s super toxic. To go from there to where I\u2019m at now, I see a lot of our kids, they\u2019re playing in silos. At that age, the propensity to become toxic, especially with some games that promote toxicity, is just exponential. I see education has always been that kind of stop gap or that opportunity or that cushion to where we can enhance your understanding of mathematics, we can enhance your understanding of science and history, et cetera.  <\/p>\n<p>What about social interaction? What about enhancing your ability to be a citizen or a digital citizen? I feel like that\u2019s just a huge opportunity that we really need to be tapping into because the kids are already doing it and if they don\u2019t have the guidance and the support and the resources to do it in a very purposeful way it\u2019s just doing a disservice to them that may actually be causing them harm.<\/p>\n<h3><em>How can organized high school esports help not only the students involved but also improve gaming culture as a whole?<\/h3>\n<p><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Dr. Richard Woodruff:<\/strong> It\u2019s amazing to see because one of the things that we do when we\u2019re onboarding students into our program, or coaches, or schools, is create this toxic-free environment. Everything we do is anti-toxic and is pro-team based. All the games that we support are all team-based.  <\/p>\n<p>Or we take a game, and we make modes or put things in it so that it becomes team based. We\u2019re anti RNG, so we don\u2019t really support games to where it\u2019s completely random, where you end up on a map. The students can trust in their strategies, trust in their communication, their leadership, their styles, if you will.  <\/p>\n<p>We think that\u2019s very important for building up those social emotional connections or social regulation and understanding that by understanding that your digital self and your real self, they\u2019re the same thing. Or we hoped that they can blend that instead of staying in one or the other, if you will, and it causing conflict.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>If you know other leaders interested in learning more about the benefits of high school esports, share this article and help drive more impact for students across the country.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dr. Richard Woodruff discusses how education-based esports programs can help students with stress and create community. Student stress has persisted far beyond the pandemic. Schools can use esports to create new places for growth and collaboration based on student interest. Esports helps foster better social integration in class and at home. Dr. Richard Woodruff, the&#8230;","protected":false},"author":400,"featured_media":113650,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[145],"tags":[37,144,165],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Q&amp;A with Esports and Stress Management Expert, Dr. Richard Woodruff | Snap! Mobile<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dr. Richard Woodruff talks student stress, social emotional wellness, success, and the benefits of esports with the Leading Edge Podcast.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/34.218.131.252\/blog\/esports-and-stress-management-expert-dr-richard-woodruff\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Q&amp;A with Esports and Stress Management Expert, Dr. Richard Woodruff | Snap! Mobile\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dr. Richard Woodruff talks student stress, social emotional wellness, success, and the benefits of esports with the Leading Edge Podcast.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/34.218.131.252\/blog\/esports-and-stress-management-expert-dr-richard-woodruff\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Snap! Mobile\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/onsnapmobile\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-07T17:54:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/34.218.131.252\/wp-content\/uploads\/esports-stress-management.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sanchit Kumar\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@onsnapmobile\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@onsnapmobile\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sanchit Kumar\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/34.218.131.252\/blog\/esports-and-stress-management-expert-dr-richard-woodruff\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/34.218.131.252\/blog\/esports-and-stress-management-expert-dr-richard-woodruff\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sanchit Kumar\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/snapraise.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d9e7101164bfd0087e86ec45660d0792\"},\"headline\":\"Q&#038;A with Esports and Stress Management Expert, Dr. Richard Woodruff\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-07T17:54:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-07T17:54:47+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/34.218.131.252\/blog\/esports-and-stress-management-expert-dr-richard-woodruff\/\"},\"wordCount\":1229,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/snapraise.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"communication\",\"transformative coaching\",\"esports\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Leadership\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/34.218.131.252\/blog\/esports-and-stress-management-expert-dr-richard-woodruff\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/34.218.131.252\/blog\/esports-and-stress-management-expert-dr-richard-woodruff\/\",\"name\":\"Q&A with Esports and Stress Management Expert, Dr. Richard Woodruff | Snap! Mobile\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/snapraise.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-07T17:54:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-07T17:54:47+00:00\",\"description\":\"Dr. Richard Woodruff talks student stress, social emotional wellness, success, and the benefits of esports with the Leading Edge Podcast.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/34.218.131.252\/blog\/esports-and-stress-management-expert-dr-richard-woodruff\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/snapraise.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/snapraise.com\/\",\"name\":\"Snap! Mobile\",\"description\":\"Leading fundraiser for High Schools\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/snapraise.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/snapraise.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/snapraise.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Snap! Mobile\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/snapraise.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/snapraise.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/snapraise.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/snap-logo-square.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/snapraise.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/snap-logo-square.svg\",\"width\":1,\"height\":1,\"caption\":\"Snap! Mobile\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/snapraise.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/onsnapmobile\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/onsnapmobile\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/snapraise\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/onsnapmobile\/\",\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@onsnapmobile\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/snapraise.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d9e7101164bfd0087e86ec45660d0792\",\"name\":\"Sanchit Kumar\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/snapraise.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fa745940c4363eaf490e97de8f4c8646?s=96&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fa745940c4363eaf490e97de8f4c8646?s=96&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sanchit Kumar\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.snapraise.com\/blog\/author\/sanchit-kumar\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Q&A with Esports and Stress Management Expert, Dr. Richard Woodruff | Snap! Mobile","description":"Dr. Richard Woodruff talks student stress, social emotional wellness, success, and the benefits of esports with the Leading Edge Podcast.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/34.218.131.252\/blog\/esports-and-stress-management-expert-dr-richard-woodruff\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Q&A with Esports and Stress Management Expert, Dr. Richard Woodruff | Snap! Mobile","og_description":"Dr. Richard Woodruff talks student stress, social emotional wellness, success, and the benefits of esports with the Leading Edge Podcast.","og_url":"https:\/\/34.218.131.252\/blog\/esports-and-stress-management-expert-dr-richard-woodruff\/","og_site_name":"Snap! Mobile","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/onsnapmobile","article_published_time":"2026-04-07T17:54:47+00:00","og_image":[{"width":900,"height":450,"url":"https:\/\/34.218.131.252\/wp-content\/uploads\/esports-stress-management.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sanchit Kumar","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@onsnapmobile","twitter_site":"@onsnapmobile","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sanchit Kumar","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/34.218.131.252\/blog\/esports-and-stress-management-expert-dr-richard-woodruff\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/34.218.131.252\/blog\/esports-and-stress-management-expert-dr-richard-woodruff\/"},"author":{"name":"Sanchit Kumar","@id":"https:\/\/snapraise.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d9e7101164bfd0087e86ec45660d0792"},"headline":"Q&#038;A with Esports and Stress Management Expert, Dr. Richard Woodruff","datePublished":"2026-04-07T17:54:47+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-07T17:54:47+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/34.218.131.252\/blog\/esports-and-stress-management-expert-dr-richard-woodruff\/"},"wordCount":1229,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/snapraise.com\/#organization"},"keywords":["communication","transformative coaching","esports"],"articleSection":["Leadership"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/34.218.131.252\/blog\/esports-and-stress-management-expert-dr-richard-woodruff\/","url":"https:\/\/34.218.131.252\/blog\/esports-and-stress-management-expert-dr-richard-woodruff\/","name":"Q&A with Esports and Stress Management Expert, Dr. Richard Woodruff | Snap! Mobile","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/snapraise.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-04-07T17:54:47+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-07T17:54:47+00:00","description":"Dr. Richard Woodruff talks student stress, social emotional wellness, success, and the benefits of esports with the Leading Edge Podcast.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/34.218.131.252\/blog\/esports-and-stress-management-expert-dr-richard-woodruff\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/snapraise.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/snapraise.com\/","name":"Snap! Mobile","description":"Leading fundraiser for High Schools","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/snapraise.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/snapraise.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/snapraise.com\/#organization","name":"Snap! Mobile","url":"https:\/\/snapraise.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/snapraise.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/snapraise.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/snap-logo-square.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/snapraise.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/snap-logo-square.svg","width":1,"height":1,"caption":"Snap! Mobile"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/snapraise.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/onsnapmobile","https:\/\/twitter.com\/onsnapmobile","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/snapraise","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/onsnapmobile\/","https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@onsnapmobile"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/snapraise.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d9e7101164bfd0087e86ec45660d0792","name":"Sanchit Kumar","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/snapraise.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fa745940c4363eaf490e97de8f4c8646?s=96&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fa745940c4363eaf490e97de8f4c8646?s=96&r=g","caption":"Sanchit Kumar"},"url":"https:\/\/www.snapraise.com\/blog\/author\/sanchit-kumar\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.snapraise.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113645"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.snapraise.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.snapraise.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.snapraise.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/400"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.snapraise.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113645"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.snapraise.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115091,"href":"https:\/\/www.snapraise.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113645\/revisions\/115091"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.snapraise.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.snapraise.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.snapraise.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.snapraise.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}