EDITOR’S NOTE: This piece is paired with an op/ed on the writer’s personal mental health journey as a former student-athlete. That piece can be read here.
There’s nothing like feeling the rush of adrenaline with the roaring crowd cheering behind you, and forming a bond with teammates to the point where you consider each other family. There are a lot of perks that come with being a collegiate athlete, such as scholarships, top priority when picking classes and access to training facilities. The reality of being a student-athlete is much less glamorous. Balancing athletic and academic schedules can be challenging, and there is constant pressure to perform at your best.
The UMass athletic department has a team of professionals whose jobs are dedicated to providing student-athletes, coaches and staff with the necessary education and resources surrounding mental health. They provide one-on-one counseling sessions, mental performance training, host team workshops and make referrals to outside providers if needed.
The athletic department uses a medical model to create a direct comparison between physical injury and mental health. Mental health is just as important as physical health but often gets overlooked. As an athlete, it is common practice to do strength training and conditioning in addition to practices because it contributes to success and being in good physical health. By valuing mental health similarly, the practice of student-athletes reaching out in times of need and getting support becomes normalized.
“We talk about injury all the time, and it is socially acceptable to get wrapped, go to the trainer [and] have physical therapy to get back to the place we want to be physically, but oftentimes mental health is ignored,” Alex Ferreira, an associate clinician for mental health at UMass, said.
“A lot of athletes come in and [they] want to work on self-improvement and learn new skills,” Ferreira said. “We talk about mental health being one of the four pillars of performance, so mental, physical, technical and tactical, all of that contributes to a positive performance.”
“If we’re controlling our physical health every day by training, weightlifting and seeing our trainers, shouldn’t we also control our mental health by engaging in therapy and learning resources and tools that can be helpful and supportive? Drawing those two connections is really helpful, and that’s how we talk to our staff and coaches [to] try and encourage them to use similar language.”
In the spring of 2024, the NCAA released an updated document detailing its four best mental health practices for member schools. Prior to the release, UMass had already implemented three: creating healthy environments that support mental health, forming mental health action plans with referral pathways and having licensed professionals to manage student-athlete mental health care. The fourth practice is screening for mental health systems. UMass already had basic screening measures in place, but the mental health and wellness department developed a more comprehensive mental health screening for all of its athletes.
“Before each competitive season begins, [associate mental health clinician Zack Etter] and I meet with every team on an individual basis and we administer a mental health screening,” Ferreira said. “While we’re doing that screening, we provide them with a mental health training and [an] overview on mental health performance services that we provide in our department. And then we administer the screening and make an individual recommendation for every single student-athlete based on their screening results for [the next steps of] treatment.”
Coaches and support staff also receive training and education on how to support student-athletes and on what to do if someone is struggling on a regular basis. They are made aware of on and off-campus resources, the department’s processes and policies surrounding mental health and how to stay on top of student-athletes’ mental health needs.
“We do mental health and emergency action response training,” Ferreira said. “We have two different response plans in place that are written plans: our routine mental health plan and our emergency action plan … Coaches are trained on that every year on everything from evaluation through a routine referral to every level of a mental health emergency.”
Bella Mendoza, a graduate goalkeeper on the Massachusetts women’s soccer team, knows about mental health struggles firsthand. She has shared her story in the past on Instagram as well as on a podcast episode for Stories by Student Athletes. Her experiences inspired her to become a campus captain at The Hidden Opponent, a non-profit advocacy group that raises awareness for student-athlete mental health and supports athletes in sharing their stories without judgment.
Mendoza’s decision to become a campus captain for the non-profit was inspired by Victoria Garrick’s Ted Talk on athletes and mental health. The Hidden Opponent was built on the goal to advocate, educate and support student athletes, and to provide them with the resources they need in a safe, caring community.
“Seeing [Garrick’s] Ted Talk, that kind of sparked the interest in me to be a part of that organization,” Mendoza said. “Just seeing what they stand for and the things that they’ve accomplished, I think that’s also something that drew me in.”
With over 900 ambassadors across 750 college campuses, The Hidden Opponent strives to eliminate the stigma against speaking out about mental health concerns in sports while promoting conversations about mental health awareness and education.
“It’s definitely made it a lot easier to share my story and the community that we have [at The Hidden Opponent] is so tight-knit and close and everyone cares about each other so much,” Mendoza said. “I think it’s also made it easier in that aspect to open up to other people, even if [they’re] strangers, because everyone else has their own story. I think the uniqueness of it makes it easier because other people go through so many different things.”
When asked about her support system here at UMass, Mendoza mentioned that it started out very small. Opening up to others was difficult at first, but reaching out to someone and asking for help has broadened her support system. By taking that first step, Mendoza noted that sharing her story has been eye-opening.
“I almost regretted my decision afterwards,” Mendoza said. “Once I had people reaching out to me online, even people that I didn’t know, saying something like ‘I’ve gone through something similar, thank you for sharing this, I needed to hear it,’ I think it just helped push me to keep going because you never know what someone is experiencing.”
UMass has made strides in prioritizing student-athlete mental health and promoting conversations about any concerns or struggles athletes have faced over the last few years. The Mental Health and Performance department organizes mindfulness events for athletes, including de-stressing activities during finals week and a world mental health day awareness event. Teams have also partnered up with different mental health awareness organizations like The Hidden Opponent, Hilinski’s Hope and the Aidan Kaminska My Day Foundation to spread awareness for student-athlete mental health.
“The most rewarding part is seeing the increase in involvement with not only UMass but other campuses,” Mendoza said. “I think there has definitely been a big increase in the talk of mental health in the student-athlete community here, and I think that’s been huge to see in my five years.”
Student-athletes often feel hesitant to share their feelings with someone else. With the current stigma surrounding mental health in sports, athletes may feel like admitting they need help will make them appear weak, letting their team down in the process. Athletes can feel pressure to perform well from coaches, teammates, family and themselves, and it can be too much to handle alone. The athletic community should support one another through these times and take some of the burden off the person struggling.
“I would just say reach out to any support system that you can, even if it’s a friend, even if it’s a coach,” Mendoza said. “It’s definitely difficult, but I think that taking the first step, [no matter] how small it may be … it helps tremendously because you may not know what to do but other people might.”
Devin Lippman can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @devinlippman.