Author Archive: Lizelle Salazar

Inside Avery’s Recovery

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The University of Michigan’s Athletes Connected program released a new video as part of its “Inside the Recovery: Athletes’ Mental Health and Injuries” video series. This series features interviews with student-athletes who have suffered from sports injury and have managed and overcome mental and physical aspects of their recovery.

Avery Peters, a center-back for the University of Michigan women’s soccer team, tore her right ACL after senior year of high school, then her left ACL freshman year shortly after arriving at U-M. She felt immense pressure after that and had thoughts such as, Do I even belong here? Am I ever going to play again?

Prior to her injury she felt too prideful to seek help, but after consistent Athletic Counseling sessions she learned tools such as journaling, meditating, and trusting the process that helped her return to the field.

“If you don’t go through it, you don’t know how hard it is,” said Peters. “But I’m thankful to have gone through that experience because I’m able to help them (teammates) more.”

“If you don’t go through it, you don’t know how hard it is,” said Peters. “But I’m thankful to have gone through that experience because I’m able to help them (teammates) more.”

ACL and other injuries are common among athletes, with Peters mentioning eight other teammates managing them. Many worry if they will ever fully recover, how it will impact play time, and their spot on the team.

“I think if I could go back, I would want to trust myself a little bit more, and be in the moment,” Avery shared. She’s very thankful for the team of support she received at U-M.

Avery was able to return to the field earning Academic All-Big Ten, Iron Wolverine, and Big Ten Distinguished Scholar. In her junior season, she led all field players with 1,609 minutes played. Avery shares her story because she doesn’t want anyone to feel they’re alone.


About Athletes Connected Formed in 2014 on an NCAA pilot grant by a collaboration of University of Michigan Depression Center, Athletics and School of Public Health, Athletes Connected actively works to provide student-athletes with the tools and resources possible to support student-athletes along the continuum of wellbeing. Athletes Connected does this by promoting awareness of mental health issues, reducing the stigma of help-seeking and promoting positive coping skills among student-athletes. To learn more about the program, view the entire catalog of videos, read original stories and access helpful resources for student-athletes and non-athletes alike.

A sign of strength

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Athletes Connected team members Uriel Zeitz and Kelly Pahle are highlighted in ‘A sign of strength’ by University of Michigan’s Office of Development.

11/19/2024
By Anissa Gabbara

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Student-athletes manage a heavy load on a daily basis—from juggling school, sports, and a social life to coping with injury and performance pressures. These stressors can take a toll on their mental health, and often the stigma surrounding those burdens prevents them from seeking help. But at the University of Michigan, support for students-athletes is available well beyond game day.

Championing mental health

As one of the mental health services provided by the Athletic Counseling Team (ACT) at Michigan Athletics, the Athletes Connected (ACX) program has been working with student-athletes since 2014. A partnership with the School of Social Work and the Eisenberg Family Depression Center, ACX aims to increase awareness of mental health issues in student-athletes, destigmatize help-seeking, and promote coping skills. The program also facilitates peer support groups, provides educational programming, and utilizes research to inform best practices. Additional resources offered by the counseling team include clinical services (individual and group therapy, crisis intervention) and mental performance services for individuals, teams, and small groups.

“We know that mental health is just as important as physical health,” said Kelly Pahle, director of athletic counseling.
“And we also know that if someone is struggling mentally—and that can be across the spectrum, from confidence in their sport all the way up to depression or anxiety—they’re more prone to injury and more likely to underperform in school, in their sport, and in their future endeavors. So we think it’s important to make sure that we are continuing to address those needs.”

‘A space to connect’

As a member of the Michigan men’s soccer team, Uriel Zeitz (AB ’23) chose to prioritize his well-being. Transferring to U‑M in his junior year, Zeitz sought support following an injury that started to affect his mental health. By participating in the Injury Support Group, restorative yoga sessions, and educational programs and events, Zeitz found renewed strength in his ACX experience.“It’s been a space to connect with fellow student-athletes around a shared goal of helping to support and enhance our mental health,” he said. “It also allowed me to really dive deeper into my own mental health, my own thinking, my own wellness and recovery process in a way that I never had to do before.”Now, as an ACX intern and a graduate student in the School of Social Work, Zeitz is using his experiences to help support other student-athletes—whether it’s going over the injury recovery process, working with them to enhance their performance skills, or helping them learn how to cope with stress and anxiety.“Student-athletes, like anyone else, struggle with—and also thrive—in mental health, so I think it’s important for me to try to keep this work going,” Zeitz said.

Setting the standard, synergistically 

classrooms and presentations.Boasting a large, diverse staff with unique backgrounds, ACT exemplifies U‑M’s distinctive ability to lead in innovative approaches to mental health care for student-athletes. Made possible by donor support, these breakthroughs are making a meaningful difference in their performance, recovery, and wellness.Restorative yoga, for example, fuses mindfulness, meditation, and intentional relaxation to calm the body and mind.

The Reflexion Board, a neurotraining tool, is used to help sharpen the mind, work on hand-eye coordination, and improve reaction time. In combination with specific mental performance strategies and game scenarios, the Reflexion Board helps athletes prepare to manage stress in high-pressure situations. Another donor-funded tool, the FocusCalm headband and app, combines neurofeedback with mindfulness, meditation, and other approaches to help student-athletes find and remain calm and focused.“Donor support is so important because what we do is really based on people; it takes a large team of trained counselors to provide comprehensive, integrated, holistic mental health and mental performance services to our 29 teams and almost 1,000 student-athletes,” Pahle said. “Because we are embedded and employed by Michigan Athletics and all of our services are free, we believe this reduces barriers to help-seeking and increases student-athlete usage of the services of the Athletic Counseling Team. Donor support is a big reason we can do that.”Zeitz emphasized that reality as well: “The support from donors is not only important in helping student-athletes, but it’s also setting frameworks for what can be used across the country and around the world.”
ACX is making an impact here and around the world. At a recent conference, Pahle met mental health providers to student-athletes from universities in North America and Africa who are incorporating ACX’s videos into their support efforts. Students and educators have told Pahle that they’ve used those videos in

Words of encouragement

As Zeitz points out, normalizing conversations about and increasing awareness of mental health in athletic spaces is crucial, especially when it comes to reducing the stigma surrounding physical injury and emotional pressure. And as someone who’s been on both sides of the table, he understands why student-athletes can be reluctant to get the help they need, but offers words of encouragement.“Ultimately, seeking help is not a sign of weakness; it is a sign of strength,” Zeitz said. “There are so many different avenues you can take to support your mental health, so be proactive and prioritize what’s going to be best for you.”

Read full story on giving.umich.edu.

The Transfer Struggle

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By Eamon Horwedel, Baseball

Every transfer student athlete transfers for various reasons. Some transfer to find a school that’s closer to home while others do it to seek opportunities that better suit their athletic and/or academic needs. In 2022, the NCAA adopted a rule change stating “athletes who transfer schools for the first time would no longer have to redshirt for a year before competing.” This rule change, along with the increasingly popular transfer portal, have made transferring easier than ever before. New opportunities and fresh starts can be really great for college athletes, but it doesn’t make transitioning from one school to the next any less difficult. With so many athletes now hitting the transfer portal, I believe it’s important to recognize some of the effects transferring can have on an athlete. 

 Every athlete has their own unique story as to why they transferred. For me, I wanted a second college experience. I played my first four years of college baseball at Ohio University before deciding to enter the transfer portal after graduating in 2022. With two years of eligibility left, I decided to graduate transfer with the hopes of finding a new college experience that was closer to home. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to play the remainder of my college baseball days at the University of Michigan. 

Not all transfers share the same experiences. Someone who transfers after just one year of college might have a completely different post-transfer experience than someone like me, who transferred after a full four years of college. For instance, some of the transitions I had to make were easier than others. Having already been to college for four years, I knew a lot of what to expect. However, since I was living off campus and was older than a lot of the other athletes, I often felt like an outsider and distant from the rest of the athletic community. 

It was strange starting all over again as a 22 year old. I remember on my first day on campus, I attended the incoming athlete orientation where I was surrounded by hundreds of freshmen athletes. I felt out of place. There I was, a recent college graduate, hanging out with a bunch of recent high school graduates. It was difficult to bond with people right away. In my undergrad, I had built relationships with athletes from all the other teams, creating a small community, but that was all gone now. I was going to have to start from scratch, and not just with forming friendships with other athletes, but I’m talking about everything. Learning about school traditions, navigating the campus, finding out who and what my available resources were. It was all new. Not only did I have to adjust to a new school environment, but I had to adjust to playing under a new set of coaches alongside a new crop of teammates. It wasn’t so easy at first. It took some time before I was able to find my groove balancing a new class schedule with baseball, learning about my new teammates, and understanding a sense of the team culture and policies. On top of adjusting to everything, I still had to find ways to compete and be an expert at my sport. As a new face on the team, I still had to prove that I belonged and fight for my spot, something most 22 year old college students don’t have to do. 

It was mentally taxing going through the fall having to compete at an elite level while adjusting to a new setting. I made the big decision to transfer to Michigan back in the summer, and I carried the weight of that decision with me throughout the year, hoping I made the right choice and wouldn’t regret anything. I’m sure many other transfer athletes feel this way too. In efforts to cope with these thoughts and feelings, I tried my best to immerse myself as much as I could with the school. I found I grew closest with my teammates who were also fellow transfers due to our shared commonality and unique experience that other teammates hadn’t had. In fact, my status as a transfer is also what led me to form friendships with other transfer athletes outside of the baseball team. I was able to bond really easily with them and we were able to learn about each other’s prior college experiences. I was able to learn about a whole new team culture and have pride in a school I never thought I would attend. Along with the many different athletes I got to meet, I was also introduced to the many different athletic department members that made my transition into Michigan a lot easier. These included our nutrition team, academic counselors, athletic counseling team, and strength coaches. 

The journey of a transfer student-athlete is a unique and challenging one. Whether it’s a desire for a second college experience, a change in athletic or academic opportunities, or simply a quest for a fresh start, the decision to transfer comes with its share of difficulties and adjustments. While the NCAA rule changes and the transfer portal have made the process more accessible, the emotional and logistical hurdles should not be underestimated. Nevertheless, as demonstrated by this personal account, with resilience, determination, and the support of fellow transfer athletes and dedicated university staff, the transition can ultimately lead to new friendships, personal growth, and a sense of belonging in a new school and athletic community.

About the Author

Eamon Horwedel recently graduated from University of Michigan’s School of Social Work in the Management and Leadership pathway and interned with University of Michigan Athletics. Eamon transferred from Ohio University to play baseball for University of Michigan 2023-2024.

Transition Out of Sport: A Foundation for Wellness

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This article is in support of Athletes Connected’s new Life After Sports initiative to support student-athletes when their athletic careers conclude. The University of Michigan is committed to supporting former student-athletes by providing resources to finding a provider and understanding insurance.

By Will Heininger, Mental Health Outreach Coordinator

As student-athletes, we are conditioned to respond; to an opponent’s movement, to the whistle, to our coaches, to the needs of our bodies, and so on. We spend the first semester – or a couple semesters – acclimating to the intense schedules of college athletics. It can be quite an adjustment to master the demands of 6 a.m. lift, class-lunch-practice, dinner-film-study hall, and still trying to get to bed for the needed 7-8 hours of sleep per night. Oh, and that workload of being a full-time student? The actual ‘student’ part of ‘student-athlete’? We learn to adapt, and make time for that too.

You may not realize it yet, but it’s unlikely that most of us will work more hours per week in the professional world than the 70-80+ hours we spend on school, practices, competitions, and travel during our playing careers. For those who do surpass their collegiate workload in the professional world, even then it’s safe to say that their routines won’t be as physically demanding as they were in college (squats & sprints in the office, anyone?). I stress this to point out that succeeding post-playing career often comes down to working smarter, not necessarily harder, than you did in college.

When we’re busy student-athletes, it’s natural to be so focused on our own responsibilities that we fail to realize all the structured support put in place to help us succeed. Whether it’s training table, tutors, career preparation services, strength coaches, operations staff to book team travel, athletic trainers, physicians, or surgeons, we are often blessed with an abundance of resources. These benefits don’t just appear in our lives out of nowhere; they are designed to make our rides as smooth as possible, so we can actually focus on the two full-time jobs of school and sport. Speaking of full-time jobs, these services are provided by professionals – other human beings – hired by our universities to make us healthier, faster, stronger, safer, and more prepared. Don’t let it be lost on you that during our playing careers, we have as talented and dedicated a support staff as we ever will again. That bears repeating, so I’ll say it again: during our playing careers, we have as talented and dedicated a support staff as we ever will again.

Succeeding post-playing career often comes down to working smarter, not necessarily harder, than you did in college. Visit the new Life After Sport section to learn more.

When we retire from our sports, it is natural to experience loss. But let’s look a little closer at what we lose. Just a few components of these losses are:

  • Structured, scheduled daily exercise
  • Social connection to teammates
  • Common purpose, belonging
  • Prepared meals – ready when you are
  • Identity as an athlete (often cultivated over 15-20 years)
  • Immediate access to elite medical care

As we plan for happy, productive, successful lives after athletics, it’s important to consider how each of these potential losses relate to our well-being. The Wellness Wheel (courtesy of Wolverine Wellness) below outlines eight key components of wellbeing. While few people are fulfilled in all areas at once, the idea is that working on these areas of our lives can help us find and maintain a sense of balance and well-being. One might argue the end of an athletic career could disrupt any or all of these components in an individual’s life, depending on their relationship with their sport.

As we transition out of organized sport, how might we find replacements for the components of well-being thatour sports provided? Instead of putting pressure on yourself to ‘work harder’ in your post-playing career, I challenge you to put that effort into your own wellness. Remember, all those trainers, tutors, and doctors are no longer on demand. Your energy, mood, and ultimately your success are greatly impacted by your well-being, either positively or negatively. By building a solid foundation rooted in your wellness, not only will you be happier and perform at higher levels professionally, but you’ll understand why you’re thriving. You’ll become familiar with your own recipe for wellness, as well as what might threaten it, as you find adjust to your ‘new normal.’

With that in mind, let’s look at one potential loss, and one idea in each area of well-being to get you started on a post-playing wellness plan:

Physical

Loss: Regularly scheduled, intense exercise

Idea: Join a gym or a fitness club near your work or home

Idea: Establish a relationship with a new primary care doctor you like

Emotional/Mental

Loss: Daily connection to teammates & close relationships

Idea: Schedule an appointment with a therapist to help you adjust to adult life

Environmental

Loss: no longer going daily to the same building for meetings, lifting, practice

Idea: Find a comfortable spot that you can easily visit. A café, library, waterfront, yoga studio, park, etc.

Financial

Loss: Scholarship check, meals, gear, etc.

Idea: Meet with a financial counselor to set up a plan you feel confident in

Occupational

Loss: The relationships, achievements, identity, and experiences from your sport

Idea: Make a list of helpful skills you’ve already developed in college (time management., internal drive, etc.). How can these translate to your personal and professional life? Which skills might not be as helpful anymore?

Social

Loss: Connections and relationships to teammates and coaches

Idea: Join a rec sports league through work or with friends. Rec sports are a great way to get exercise, have fun, and meet new people.

Intellectual

Loss: The mental preparation for your sport. Strategy, game plan, film, etc.

Idea: Find a new intellectual pursuit – read a book that interests you, try a new hobby like chess, Sudoku, crossword puzzles, etc.

Spiritual

Loss: Purpose/belonging from your athletic identity. Perhaps a place of worship, or a religious group on campus, that you might’ve attended in school.

Idea: Remind yourself every day that your spiritual well-being is important. Even if you don’t connect with any traditional spirituality, feeding your human spirit can go a long way.

Idea: Living with purpose often means living in alignment with our values. Write down 3-5 core values you want to live by, and put them up in your home somewhere you’ll see them regularly. Check in with yourself to ask if you’re living in line with your values.

About the Author: 

Will Heininger is mental health educator and public speaker for the University of Michigan Depression Center, openly sharing his story of overcoming major depression and anxiety during undergrad, while playing football at Michigan. After hiding his illness at first due to stigma and ignorance, he received life-changing treatment and care from the Athletic Medicine staff, and was able to thrive for the majority of his time at Michigan. He would go on to help found Athletes Connected in 2014.

Since first sharing his story at the Depression on College Campuses Conference, Will has spoken with over 100,000 people across the country, helping to bridge the gap between what science and medicine have learned about mental health and well-being, and what society actually knows and uses. In addition to athletes of all levels, Will works with schools, athletic departments, communities, and corporations to improve mental health outcomes. A native of Ann Arbor, Michigan, Heininger claims beating Ohio State on Senior Day at the Big House as his favorite Michigan memory.