PCA Updates
On Wednesday, March 31, we hosted a mental health panel addressing mental health in sports and teen athlete suicide. The panel, moderated by PCA’s Trennis Jones and Casey Miller, discussed the latest research findings on student-athlete mental health during COVID, specific tools and resources to be a gatekeeper for your team or community, and insights from a current student-athlete and youth sports coach.
The panel began by introducing our esteemed guests:
Before beginning the discussion and asking questions that were sent in by attendees, Casey outlined the following topics to be the focal points of the panel: statistics and research surrounding mental health during COVID compared to before, leading through tragedy, prevention and how to create a good culture, and how we “navigate this new normal”.
Mental Health Resources from The Jed Foundation
Tim McGuine talked about his research in terms of the impact COVID-19 had on student-athletes mental health such as stopping sports and stopping school, especially at the same time. He sent out a survey to thousands of students across the country and was stunned at the results. According to the responses, the overall quality of life and physical activity was down, while feelings of depression and anxiety were up. There were differences between responses from different genders, athletes who play team vs. individual sports, economic status, location of the home, etc. Tim said that the response to this data has been welcoming and overwhelming since many of those in positions of power liked having statistical data instead of just anecdotal information, which is pushing them to do more in this area.
Rich Pruszynski started off with a staggering statistic that he has lost 4 players in recent seasons, 3 from struggles with mental health, and that it’s not easy to get through it. His biggest takeaway from this journey is to lean on others because it’s too difficult of a time to bear the burden of leading alone and dealing with this type of situation alone. Although it may be uncomfortable or difficult, Rich says that it is so important to be honest with yourself and let people know that you need help. It might feel impossible during such an unknown period of time, but a piece of advice he gave was to try and find the bright spots and stay positive.
You can't lack courage as a leader to talk about this topic...it’s not about me, it’s about the players & kids that I’m in charge of.
More Research Studies Shared by Tim McGuine
Later in the panel, Kamla Modi and Rich discussed prevention and how to create a good culture. Rich said that his coaching style is to lead with empathy and to use his position to really get to know and understand his players. He aims to establish a “caring climate” because there has to be personality in coaching, not just X’s and O’s. In his words, a coach’s job is to figure out how to use the teachable moments.
Kamla talked about how culture has to exist in order to have these conversations. Her advice to coaches and administrators to create this culture:
According to Kamla’s experience, the only way to truly delve into these issues is to be fully open to these conversations. Topics like these cannot be brought up out of anywhere, but rather you can open the door by talking to your student-athletes and doing little check-ins.
Current student-athlete Sienna Durr talked about how she’s gotten through the past year. She said the beginning was very difficult because no one had any specific details and she felt like a lot just got taken away out of nowhere. Sienna’s team, Columbia University, made it to the Ivy League Championship for the first time in school history, but it subsequently got canceled. Sienna talked about how not only herself, but her whole team and probably all of the other student-athletes who lost seasons and championships felt a lot of anger, confusion, and sadness. After the fact though, she said that her coaches did a really good job of trying to keep morale up by getting together on Zoom to talk about the future, things to look forward to, and to make sure the athletes were staying active. Her biggest decision came when trying to figure out her eligibility, and ultimately Sienna took a gap year this past year. The support of her teammates and coaches is what got her through this time, especially since she felt guilty about how she was feeling since a lot of her identity, she felt, was in being an athlete.
The most important thing to do as a coach is to just be there, and show that you’re there.
Thank you to Tim McGuine, Rich Pruszynski, Kamla Modi, and Sienna Durr for sharing your experiences surrounding mental health, especially during COVID and taking the time to speak with us.
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