Cailin Bracken arrived at Vanderbilt to play lacrosse already well aware of the importance of athlete mental health. She knew of at least two female college athletes, including one from near where she grew up, who had taken their own lives.
Bracken was overwhelmed by college life, especially when she had to isolate upon testing positive for COVID-19 after just a few days on campus. She decided to leave the team.
“I was so self-aware. I was just so trusting of my intuition in a way, and it sounds cliche, but the idea that I’m like, I need to go home even if it doesn’t feel like the right decision to make in terms of my career path or my reputation or whatever else,” she said. “… I felt when I got to college, like my nervous system was deregulated. I couldn’t process anything. I constantly felt overwhelmed. I never felt safe.”
Then came the first death of at least five college athletes — Stanford soccer goalkeeper Katie Meyer — all of whom took their own lives this spring. It sparked concerns that colleges were not doing enough for some of their higher-profile students.
Bracken wrote an open letter to college sports, calling on coaches and administrators to become more cognizant of the challenges athletes face in navigating not only their competitive side, but also their social and academic responsibilities.
It isn’t clear whether U.S. college athletes are taking their lives at a higher rate than others in their age range; the NCAA declined to share with The Associated Press whether it tracks athlete suicides. But universities are starting to pay closer attention to the mental health of their athletes — in varying degrees — and it’s partly because athletes are advocating for themselves and their teammates.
“Mental health support has to be treated just like academic support and injury prevention and injuries,” said Michael Mominey, the athletic director at Nova Southeastern.
For many schools, the focus began before the pandemic. That includes James Madison, where sophomore softball player Lauren Bernett took her life on April 25.
“What we have seen is over the last decade … (is a) significant increase in mental health concerns, lots more students coming to college with mental health concerns,” said Tim Miller, vice president of student affairs at James Madison, which canceled the rest of the softball season after Bernett’s death. “And what we saw really in the last two and a half, three years of the pandemic is exponential increase. So if you imagine it as a graph, it has gone uphill very quickly.”
Suicides in the U.S. among ages 15-24 rose from 4,600 in 2010 to 6,062 in 2020, according to federal data. An analysis published in the journal Sports Health in 2015 found 35 NCAA athletes took their own lives over a nine-year period (2003-04 to 2011-12), and there were several other similar deaths of college athletes reported in the years following.
This year, Meyer, whose two saves in a shootout helped the Cardinal win the 2019 national championship, took her life March 1. A month later, it was Robert Martin, a graduate student goalie on the Binghamton lacrosse team. A day later, Northern Michigan track athlete Jayden Hill died. Sarah Shulze, a junior who ran cross country and track at Wisconsin, died April 13. Then there was Bernett, followed by Southern University freshman cheerleader Ariana Miller on May 4.
Only half of the 9,808 NCAA athletes who took a survey in late 2021 said they believe mental health is a priority to their athletics department. The survey, which included athletes in all three divisions, showed 63% believed their teammates took mental health concerns seriously, and 56% know how to help a teammate experiencing a mental health issue.
Athletes have less faith in their coaches taking mental health concerns seriously, with 53% believing that’s the case.
Division II Nova Southeastern has a program within its athletics department that integrates mental health alongside other important pieces of athletes’ lives. Mominey, who has been at the school for two decades and also coached baseball there, pointed to 2016 as a turning point.
He said there were instances of athletes who were trying to hurt themselves and “acting out in a way that they were looking for help” — things that needed more than just “mental skills training.” As part of the rollout of the Academic, Injury and Mental Health Program, Mominey and his leadership team had candid talks with coaches, getting both immediate buy-in and immediate pushback.
“We think we’re with them all the time, 20-plus hours a week. We’re always in touch. We recruit,” Mominey said. “But you really don’t know them until you know them. You don’t know what’s going on with mom or dad.”
