Recently, Dallas Cowboys player Marshawn Kneeland took his own life, which brought up a lot of attention not only to mental health but also to how it impacts athletes. 

Senior Sophia Jaffe had some information about how she thinks mental health impacts athletes, “I would say it’s like mental blocks with it, with being like you can’t do something, or feel like not able to do it, or get scared and like freak yourself out with it.”

Jaffe also had some information on how she keeps herself calm and how she deals with her mental health: “I try to make myself calm, and then I remind myself that, you know, once I do it, I’ll feel better about things with anything and cheer anything like that.”

Mental health has a much bigger impact on people than you may think; that’s why we need to make people more aware of their mental health.

Freshman Emily Perkins had information on what the hardest part of dealing with her mental health is: “It’s a lot of comparison between just other people, especially someone on the dance team.”

The NCAA conducted a study and found that a majority of student-athletes knew how to help a teammate experiencing a mental health issue, and that fewer than a majority reported that they were not comfortable seeking out help with their mental health, via the NCAA.

Freshman Anna Green had information about why mental health needs to be more important and more people should know about their mental health: ”Just a lot of people don’t really like understand what you’re going through, so it’s hard to share what you’re saying and people not understanding. Because a lot of the time they’ll hear something and people like, brush over it.”