Author Archive: Stephanie Salazar

SwimSwam: Athletes Connected Creating Change and Constantly Evolving

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Athletes Connected was featured on SwimSwam.com in a story that explains how the program is breaking through barriers of stigma and raising awareness of mental wellness.

By Jeff Grace

Have you ever struggled to find the motivation to do the things you love? Have you ever found yourself withdrawing from social contact? Worrying excessively?

Many of us have. These are some of the signs and symptoms that signal you may need to talk to someone that can provide you with support.

When you feel shoulder pain during a training session most often you will seek treatment from a doctor or a physiotherapist. When people, especially athletes, experience the feelings described above many are reluctant to seek out treatment for their mental wellness in the same way they would their physical health.

In a research study conducted in 2014 it was found that intercollegiate athletes who suffered from depression and anxiety are far less likely to utilize mental health services compared to the general student population.

Athletes Connected, a mental wellness program at the University of Michigan, was created to provide athletes with support, coping skills and breakdown stigma surrounding mental health so that athletes would be more likely to address their mental wellness.

Athletes Connected was created in 2014 and is a collaborative, multi-faceted program developed by the U-M School of Public Health, Depression Center, and Athletic Department to increase awareness of mental health issues, reduce stigma, and promote coping skills among student athletes. The program features four key elements:

  • Brief, engaging videos to reduce stigma, encourage help-seeking and promote coping skills;
  • Informational presentations for all coaches and athletes;
  • Informal, drop-in support groups offered on a bi-weekly basis, designed to specifically address the unique concerns of student athletes.
  • Conducts research to better understand the student athlete population and mental health as well as sport performance.

*Program information taken from the 2014 NCAA Innovations Grant Final Report University of Michigan Developing and Evaluating a Model Program for Supporting the Mental Health of Student Athletes.

As a swimmer Emily Klueh won the 1650 at the 2008 NCAA Championships, took a bronze in the 10 km at the 2010 Pan Pacific Championships and in 2013 was the overall winner of the FINA Open Water World Cup. Klueh is now a clinical athletic counselor and the program coordinator of Athletes Connected.

One of the main reasons Klueh became so involved in the area of mental health is because her own challenges, “I think a lot of people struggle with mental health,” says Klueh. “I know that was a driving factor for me getting into the field.”

“I think that there are a lot of people who have experienced things in their life where coping skills have been beneficial. For me, I know have the education, training, and license in order to accurately work with student athletes wherever they fall on the continuum of wellbeing. ”

Read the rest of the story on SwimSwam.

Big East Hosts First Mental Health Summit

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By Jeremy Fallis, Multimedia Communication Specialist

The Big East Conference hosted its first Mental Health Summit in conjunction with the NCAA at Georgetown University on Thursday-Friday, June 15-16. The first-of-its-kind summit was a two-day event to better support student-athlete mental wellness.

Emceed by FOX Sports digital correspondent Rachel Bonnetta, the event was attended by student-athletes, staff, administrators, NCAA officials and the conference’s student-athlete athletic committee. On hand for the event was Chamique Holdsclaw to share her story. This past January, Holdsclaw was invited by the Depression Center and the School of Public Health for a screening and Q&A of the 2015 documentary, “Mind/Game: The Unquiet Journey of Chamique Holdsclaw.”

Maine Athletics to Support Student-Athlete Mental Health Initiative

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By Jeremy Fallis, Multimedia Communication Specialist

It was announced last week that another NCAA Division I institution, the University of Maine, will kickstart its own student-athlete mental health initiative. The Athletes Connected program warmly welcomes the Black Bears athletic department to the forefront of student-athlete mental welfare.

Since 2014, the University of Michigan, aided by a grant from the NCAA, has been the leader in raising awareness, ending stigma and promoting help-seeking among student-athletes and their mental health.

The NCAA has facilitated both Michigan and Maine’s pursuit of healthy student-athletes. The Black Bears will use over $640,000 of its yearly disbursement toward this newly created program that is set to be unveiled this fall.

Just this week, Athletes Connected’s Will Heininger spoke to the NCAA staff on the importance of mental health and student-athletes, affirming the organization’s commitment to this cause.

According to the NCAA’s Sports Science Institute, “the SSI believes mental health is a part of, not apart from, athlete health.” This rings true in the NCAA’s educational resources, best practices for campuses, data and research, and summits and task forces.

Additionally, the NCAA research team contributed a story to the New York Times to promote this initiative. Featured in the story is Michigan alum Kally Fayhee, including a feature video produced by the NYT’s Brand Studio for the NCAA.

Now entering its fourth year, Athletes Connected is continuing to make strides in its mission for student-athletes. Later this summer, the project will film new footage for online videos slated for the fall and unveil new offerings for the athletes, staff and coaches.

Players’ Tribune: Marc Savard’s Hell and Back

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This story originally ran on The Players’ Tribune

By Marc Savard, Retired NHL Player

here’s one thing that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. It’s not the head shot I took. I can barely remember that part. It’s not even the pain and anxiety that I went through after the hit.

The thing that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy is the moment when you know that it’s all over. Everything you’ve worked for since you were a kid … it’s really over, and you can’t fool yourself anymore.

For me, that moment came in Colorado on January 22, 2011.

More than anything, I was feeling a lot of anxiety. It felt like I had this weight on my chest. My mind would race and I would feel sick.

I was coming down the wing at full speed. Matt Hunwick leaned in and hit me clean. Unfortunately, he caught me just right, and my head whiplashed off the glass. Back then, Colorado’s glass was seamless. It was notoriously unforgiving.

I immediately dropped to my knees. I had my eyes wide open, and I couldn’t see anything. Everything was black. I shut my eyes, and then opened them again. All black.

That’s when I started to panic. Because I knew it was over. I just knew. I remember hearing the voice of our trainer, Don DelNegro, asking me what I felt.

And I just kept saying, “Why me? I don’t understand, Donny. Why me?”

My teammates escorted me to the dressing room, and I had a tough couple of minutes in there. I was sobbing. I remember my coach, Claude Julien, coming in and trying to console me. But I couldn’t be consoled. I knew I had just played my last game in the NHL. I kept thinking: “I have kids. I have a family to worry about. I’m only 33. What am I going to do? I can’t go through this pain again. I can’t go through these dark days. Again.”

I knew the kind of hell I was in for, because I had experienced it all the year before.

March 7, 2010. We were in Pittsburgh. Playoffs about to start. Feeling good.

I wish I could give you my perspective on the hit that changed my life, but I don’t have a perspective. I have no memory of the actual event. Anything I tell you would just be me going off of the same YouTube clip that everybody else has seen. Even when I watch the video now, it’s like the hit is happening to a different person.

I was in the middle of the ice, taking a routine shot on net, and then Matt Cooke did what he did. I don’t think I have to say too much about it. Anybody can watch it and draw their own conclusions.

I was out cold for 29 seconds. Or at least that’s what my trainer told me when I came to and asked him what had happened. My head hurt, bad. My vision was cloudy.

The only only memory I have is of being taken off the ice on a stretcher, and then realizing that my kids were at home watching the game. So I put my hand up to let them know that dad was O.K.

I wasn’t O.K.

I had experienced three or four minor concussions before, but nothing like this.

That was the start of some really dark days. It’s a part of my life that I don’t really like revisiting too often, but I’m telling my story today for anyone who might be going through a similar kind of hell.

The trainers knew my injury was serious, so they kept me in Pittsburgh overnight for observation. Usually after games, your heart is racing for hours and you’re wired. But I was dead. Totally exhausted. Even the next day, when we got on the plane to Boston, I was still so drowsy.

You know that feeling of getting on a really early flight, when you’re so tired and irritable, and you just keep thinking, “Alright, at least once I get on this plane, I’ll pass out, and then I’ll wake up and be myself again.”

(Hockey players on long road trips definitely know the feeling.)

Well, imagine waking up and still feeling completely exhausted. Imagine that feeling lingering for almost two months. No matter how much you rest, you never feel like yourself. There’s no relief. You’re just exhausted and pissed off and confused.

For two months, I was a zombie.

Read the rest of the story on The Players’ Tribune.

ESPNW: After Hurting Herself, Oregon State’s Lanesha Reagan Asks Fellow Student-Athletes to Help Others

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This story originally ran on ESPNW

By Mirin Fader

Madison Holleran. All Lanesha Reagan could think about was Madison Holleran, the University of Pennsylvania track athlete.

Reagan, Oregon State volleyball’s 5-foot-10 starting outside hitter, known for her power and pogo-stick bounce, lay in her bed in her freshman dorm and combed through Holleran’s story. Madison seemed to be gifted, kind, competitive. A budding track star, a daughter, a friend. Even a banana-and-peanut-butter aficionado. Few knew she struggled with depression and the pressures of social media.

On Jan. 17, 2014, Holleran leaped off the ninth level of a parking garage in Philadelphia. She died at 19.

Reagan shivered. Images of her own life swirled around her head: years of masking her pain, years of blocking out her shame, years of wishing she inhabited a body other than her own.

“I am so sick of feeling alone and helpless. Mental illness is not something you should be ashamed of but breaking down that stigma starts with us, the student-athletes. We can change the culture and make it easier for our friends and teammates to get the help that they need.”

“That honestly could have been me,” Reagan said. “If things would have been different … I have no doubt in my mind that that could have been me.”

Reagan, who will be a senior next season, remembered this moment as she typed until she couldn’t type anymore in early January. Few knew she was about to post: “Being a Student-Athlete and Living with Mental Illness.” Not her grandparents, Dorothy and Patrick Reagan, who raised her; not her best friend, Ellen Anderson, the peanut butter to her jelly since age 4.

Reagan didn’t want to sound ungrateful for her Division I athletic scholarship. She didn’t want to alter anyone’s image of her: outgoing, smart, warm, bold. Passionate about her English major and writing minor, books and Beyoncé. A shoulder to cry on and the life of the party. “You know when Lanesha walks into a room,” said McKenna Hollingsworth, a junior setter/outside hitter. Reagan’s radiance caused her preschool teachers to call her “Miss Sunshine.”

But Reagan had to speak her truth. Not for herself, but for others.

“I am so sick of feeling alone and helpless,” Reagan wrote in her post. “Mental illness is not something you should be ashamed of but breaking down that stigma starts with us, the student-athletes. We can change the culture and make it easier for our friends and teammates to get the help that they need.”

‘I want to be alive’

At age 13, Reagan dreamed of becoming a Division I volleyball player. But she also thrived in martial arts, ballet, horseback riding, dancing, ice skating, singing. “Lanesha was very driven on her own,” Dorothy said. “She was blessed physically to be an extraordinary athlete no matter what sport she chose.”

She devoured books in one sitting and wrote short stories in her journals, later serving as editor of Snohomish (Washington) High School’s student newspaper, The Arrowhead. She was crowned homecoming princess. She threw elaborate parties, including one on Halloween with more than 100 classmates. Reagan and her friends dressed up as different hot sauces from Taco Bell, like “verde,” “hot” and “spicy.” Reagan was “fire.”

Reagan’s 36-inch vertical jump — higher than the average NBA player — wowed spectators. She had a knack for hanging a little bit longer, as if the pocket of air opened just for her. Opponents would duck and dodge her hits. She was named an American Volleyball Coaches Association/MaxPreps Under Armour All-American and verbally committed to Oregon State as a sophomore.

“I didn’t have to push her to work harder because she was outrunning everybody in the gym all the time,” Snohomish coach Alex Tarin said. She had to, having received her first Division I letter in eighth grade, with tons more hunting after her freshman year. The pressure pierced her.

“She was really the star of the school. Everybody knew her name, was saying her name,” Anderson said. “It always kind of got in her way of her love for volleyball because she was always having to be this perfect image that everyone wanted her to be.”

Reagan held a different image of herself. She remembers suffering from depression by the end of seventh grade. She felt alone and didn’t think anyone would understand. It didn’t help that her classmates in Snohomish, which is an overwhelmingly white city, taunted her mixed identity (Reagan is half African-American and half white): “You’re not really black. You don’t act black.”

Developing muscles to complement her athletic frame, Reagan longed to shrink into her friends’ petite bodies and jump out of her own. She never felt comfortable in the tight jerseys, the spandex. She’d stare at herself in the mirror, disgusted, pinching her skin. She developed an eating disorder, a mix of anorexia and bulimia — the latter became the bigger struggle. She ingested just enough Honey Nut Cheerios and Gatorade to survive practice. Yet she craved those two hours because she could jump and hit and block and not think about anything else.

By eighth grade, she began cutting on her upper hips with razor blades she removed from her shavers. Once she cut all over her stomach and didn’t realize it until she was done; it happened so quickly. “I was just numb to feeling,” Reagan said. “I wanted to feel something and that was the only way I could.” She willed herself to become a mountain: tall, strong, solid, and no matter the snow, hail or rain that enveloped her, she would shine. “I just knew that I had to always be happy,” Reagan said.

Read the rest of the story on ESPN.com.