Mental Health in a COVID World

We’re four-plus months into a global pandemic and millions of people are feeling both the short- and long-term ramifications of COVID-19’s contagion. The pandemic has hit the college athletics and higher education sectors particularly hard. While some schools are using COVID-19 as a scapegoat for its financial woes by cutting athletic programs to preserve football, other schools are forced to make difficult financial decisions.

The Ivy League announced it won’t play sports in the fall to protect the health of the athletes, a move that should be applauded by many. Stanford, on the other hand, cut 11 sports amid dire budgetary constraints that were ultimately exacerbated by the pandemic.

Do I think we should be playing college sports in the fall? No. If it’s not safe for fans to be in the stands or are forced to sit six feet apart from one another, then how can we say - with a straight face - that college football needs to be played? While I advocate for hitting pause on college sports in the interim, I do not want to see athletes lose academic opportunities. For many, playing college sports is their path to an education.

Not only am I concerned about the health and well-being of athletes affected by sports cuts, but I am also concerned about the mental health of staff members who lose their jobs. Working in sports is a lifestyle. It’s not a career. It becomes a part of you, an identity.

When that's taken away, it destroys you. When my career was pulled out from under me, my mental health was at an all-time low. I couldn’t process what had happened or if I was good enough to do something else. I had spent the previous 15 years of my life working in college athletes as a student, graduate assistant, or full-time employee.

I was a wreck for 2016 and 2017 after I lost my job. I was lost. I was a shell of my former self.

The pandemic has affected all of us. We’re all in the same storm but different boats. Some boats are filling with water faster than others while some boats are dry and avoiding the water from overflowing. While the pandemic has created a financial strain not seen since the Great Depression, the mental toll put on people can be catastrophic.

For those working in sports, how are you coping?

I think back to my first anxiety attack I endured in 2014 before the awards luncheon at the CoSIDA Convention in Orlando. I felt as though I was drowning and I couldn’t speak. I thought I was dying. And if that was me sitting a stage before a crowd, then I know there could be a great mental health strain on those who have either been a casualty of sports cuts or whose future may be uncertain.

Sometimes it’s hard to ask for help. I’ve been there.

I want to help. I’m here to offer advice on how to cope or to simply sit on the phone and listen.