Athletes Connected was prominently featured in a story by Global Sport Matters about current and former student-athletes bringing mental illness to the forefront of college athletics. AC’s Will Heininger is quoted in the story.

Will Heininger

By Jeff Burtka

In August 2008, Will Heininger’s life was spiraling out of control. He was not eating or sleeping, and he felt hopeless. His parents were going through a divorce, and he was juggling the demands of being a defensive end for the University of Michigan football team, including trying to impress a new coaching staff. When the team huddled at the end of practice, the depression and anxiety festering inside him burst the emotional dam he had built.

As student-athletes open up about mental health challenges, more university athletic departments add supportive resources for total health and well being.

“I felt the tears coming on. I didn’t care anymore. I felt so low,” Heininger said. “I didn’t have the energy to hold it back because I had been hiding it from everybody for so long every day.”

Luckily for Heininger, athletic trainer Lenny Navitskis had mental health training and awareness, and he walked Heininger to athletic counselor Barb Hansen’s office, where Heininger’s healing began.

“It made me a better player because, first of all, I learned how to have a fit mind as well as a fit body. I literally was performing at a higher level than I ever had once I got healthy.” — Will Heininger

Despite his fear that his coaches and teammates would think he was weak, they supported him.

“They were looking at it differently than I was,” Heininger said. “I was looking at it like something is wrong with me, like I am defective. And they were looking at it like you’re coming back from a medical issue.”

Heininger was diagnosed with major depression and anxiety. He worked with a therapist and physician to find the right combination of medication and therapy.

“It made me a better player because, first of all, I learned how to have a fit mind as well as a fit body,” he said. “I literally was performing at a higher level than I ever had once I got healthy.”

Erin Rubenking, associate director and clinical care coordinator for the University of Colorado athletic department’s Psychological Health and Performance program, said anxiety and disorders of depression are two common issues she sees with athletes, but at rates consistent with the general public. However, the athletic population does have higher rates of binge drinking, substance-abuse disorders and eating disorders or disordered eating, she said.

“There are factors that can contribute to it for athletes that non-athletes don’t necessarily experience,” Rubenking said. “When I think about anxiety, their schedules are so packed, expectations put on them, and there is a lot of pressure. That can often prompt the development of some of these mental health issues.”

Rubenking warns against assuming these outside pressures are the only factors that cause mental health disorders in athletes. For example, she said, “Is it people that have a certain personality type that are drawn to sports, but it also predisposes them to addiction? Or is it something within athletics?”

Read the rest of the story on GlobalSportMatters.com.

Michigan senior lacrosse goalie Mira Shane was profiled by US Lacrosse Magazine for her off-the-field exploits, which include being a mental health advocate.

Photo by Benji Bear

By Jeremy Fallis

Beat boxer. Mental health advocate. Social justice champion.

These are some of the titles that Mira Shane holds as the bright, uplifting voice on the Michigan women’s lacrosse team.

Shane, a goalie, came to Michigan because she could be more than a lacrosse player.

Fueled by her musical passion, she stars in an a cappella group, 58 Greene, as a vocal percussionist.

Burdened by life’s pressures and expectations — traveling far from her Princeton, N.J., home and feeling isolated as a biracial athlete in a predominantly white sport — she shared her struggles with mental health in a widely released video for the school’s Athletes Connected program.

Shane is the president of Athletes for Community Transformation, which fosters mentorship opportunities for Michigan’s student-athletes. She also took part in the school’s “Expect Respect” public service announcement campaign promoting civil discourse and a diverse campus culture.

“I love to give to others, and I want to show others that it’s good to be authentic,” said Shane, who made eight starts for the Wolverines in 2018 and was named this week’s Brine/US Lacrosse Player of the Week. “Help others, but also raise the voice of others that aren’t usually being heard — whether that’s through race and breaking barriers or whether that’s through sports.”

Read the rest of the story on US Lacrosse Magazine, including Shane speaking about a cappella, mental health and important causes.

Jevon Moore, mental health outreach coordinator for Michigan Athletics, joined Cynthia Canty of Stateside Radio to discuss how he and the Athletes Connected program address mental health, the resources provided and strategies used to help student-athletes. Their discussion lasted nearly 12 minutes.

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Student-athletes face unique pressures, both on and off the field.

But research has found athletes are far less likely than other college students to seek help for mental health issues, such as anxiety or depression.

Jevon Moore wants to change that. Moore joined Stateside’s Cynthia Canty to discuss his efforts to shift the culture of college athletics and increase awareness of mental health resources.

During his undergraduate years, Moore played football at North Carolina State. Now, he is pursuing a Master’s in Social Work at the University of Michigan and working with the university’s Athletes Connected program, a collaboration between UM Athletics, the School of Public Health, and the Depression Center.

When a student-athlete arrives on a campus like Michigan’s, Moore says they are immediately introduced to a large circle of individuals looking over them — coaches, trainers, doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, and nutritionists.

Moore said this can be overwhelming as athletes begin to look around and try to figure out who is in their corner and who they can trust. Many of the people in a student athlete’s life are focused on helping athletes get rid of their weaknesses and increase their strength. So it can be especially confusing to seek help if you are experiencing mental weaknesses.

Read and listen to the rest of the story on Michigan Radio.

The Detroit News profiled Athletes Connected and Will Heininger to discuss how Michigan is dealing with the challenges of student-athlete mental wellness.

By John Niyo

The headlines keep screaming about a crisis, most recently the suicide of a starting quarterback for a major college football program. And the underlying numbers — about the prevalence of mental-health problems in today’s society, and the stigma still attached to it in sports — suggest there’s ample cause for alarm.

But seated in an office inside the University of Michigan’s Comprehensive Depression Center, Will Heininger, a former defensive lineman for the Wolverines — and someone who might’ve been a sad statistic himself had a silent cry for help not been heard several years ago — wants to make a point.

There’s hope, and light, and as the late-morning sun shines through the windows of this transformative building on UM’s east medical campus — home to the first-ever multidisciplinary center dedicated to depression and bipolar illnesses — Heininger is busy delivering a clear-eyed message.

“I think it’s important that people know progress is being made,” said Heininger, now 29 and working as outreach coordinator for the UM Depression Center. “The dramatic headlines are going to grab more attention. Yet for every tragic situation and life lost to suicide, there’s a ton of outreach and prevention work being done that obviously might not make the news.

“You can’t only focus on the negatives. Because it’s not an accurate version of the truth. We are doing great work and there’s really devastating things still happening.”

May is Mental Health Awareness month, and speaking as both a mental-health advocate and as a young man whose own life was nearly destroyed by depression, Heininger doesn’t want this to be overlooked: “I’m really proud of how far we’ve come.”

As he should be. Heininger is a testament to that progress, a former football player openly discussing once-taboo subjects of fear and anxiety and depression. He’s also the poster boy, in many ways, for UM’s Athletes Connected program, a living, breathing example of why this collaborative effort between the School of Public Health, the Depression Center and the athletic department is needed.

Read the rest of the story on The Detroit News.