Jayne Claire Vincent, Campus Carrier assistant sports editor
Last week the Athletics Department partnered with the Counseling Center and Hilinski’s Hope to bring awareness to athlete’s mental health.
Throughout the week Becca Smith, director of the Counseling Center and licensed professional counselor, spoke to several of the sports teams on campus about mental toughness as well as how the Counseling Center can help each athlete on campus. The Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) also contributed to bringing awareness to athlete’s mental health throughout the week.
This is the first year that both departments all collaborated and made an effort towards bringing awareness to the subject.
After COVID-19, the Athletics Department wanted to respond more with a mental health focus than they had before in the past. Some of the things that they did to bring about awareness was partner with Hilinski’s Hope.
The Hilinski’s Hope Foundation (H3H) was founded in 2018 by Mark and Kym Hilinski to honor the life of their son Tyler. Tyler was a football player at Washington State University (WSU) before he died by suicide. Tyler’s mom and dad, brothers Kelly and Ryan, along with their extended families and friends created H3H in response to the outpouring of love and affection for Tyler during and after his life.
The Berry Athletic Department got connected to Hiliniski’s Hope through the NCAA and Berry’s track and field coach Luke Syverson since he also attended WSU.
The SAAC posted online how Berry athletes were celebrating athletes’ mental health awareness week which included wearing Hilinski’s Hope lapel pins, ribbons, wristbands and adding the Hilinski’s Hope stickers onto their helmets.
“Hilsinki’s Hope is awesome and contributed to the mental health awareness week, but it was one aspect that contributed, SAAC also contributed” said Ginger Swann, assistant athletic director.
The SAAC wanted to focus on athletes’ mental health which is why they, along with coaches and administrators, asked Smith to visit with different sports teams.
Throughout the week Smith visited with multiple teams to discuss mental toughness and the different services the Counseling Center offers. Along with meeting with different teams, Smith also met with the SAAC during the week to ensure that team captains were informed of the services the center offers.
“33% of all college students experience significant symptoms of depression, anxiety or other mental health conditions. Among that group, 30% seek help. But of college athletes with mental health conditions, only 10% do,” said Smith. “Last year 13.5% of students coming to the Counseling Center identified as NCAA athletes. So far, since August 1, we’ve had 13.8% of students coming to the Counseling Center identify as NCAA athletes”.
The Counseling Center is trying to bump up the percentage of athletes that take advantage of services at the Counseling Center to 15%.
“There is still a quantity out there who are suffering but not accessing services,” Smith said. “The culture is to be tough, don’t show weakness, don’t ask for help, just be ok.”
Something that student athletes were made aware of throughout student athlete mental health awareness week was that the Counseling Center offers same day solution sessions from 2 – 4p.m. with different counselors.
There are also emotional wisdom workshops every Tuesday in the Commons at the library. If athletes are interested in going to the workshops but practice conflicts with the timing all they would need to do is talk to their coach. If student athletes are struggling, they can talk to their coaches who are trained to know when they need to reach out to the Counseling Center.
While taking care of mental health is not any different for students than it is for student athletes, athletes tend to have a more stressful schedule on top of dealing with performance anxiety that mimics depression and anxiety.
Junior Teagan Fritts, a peer educator as well as a member of the golf team, said to reach out when students actions are affected by their mental health.
“It is time to get help when you define your mood off how practice or a game went and how you performed,” said Fritts. “It’s time to reach out for help when how you act is effected by your mental health.”
“It may seem like people aren’t struggling but know that everyone has some sort of struggle going on even if it doesn’t appear so on the outside,” said Fritts. “It’s okay to reach out for help and to reach out to your coach, it’s not something to be ashamed of. Everyone is human and we all struggle.”
Throughout the semester Fritts has been working to bring awareness to athletes’ mental health. Since she is a student athlete herself, she will be able to inform her peers about athlete’s mental health year-round rather than just one week.
“[The Athletic Department is] trying to educate, train and support mental health,” said Swann.
“We need to deal with the stigma that student athletes have. They might feel pressure to feel strong which might keep them from getting help and support and going to counseling”.