Kelly Jacobson speaks with Team West Haven, October 1, 2023.
He wakes up at 4:30 a.m., goes to the field at 5:45 a.m., and practices for two hours. I eat breakfast. shower. Please go to class. Eat dinner. Go to the team study hall. sleep. He will repeat it four more times this week.
That’s the daily schedule for Kelly Jacobson, captain of the New Haven field hockey team. Jacobson, a junior majoring in criminal justice, was chosen by the team for the leadership role.
Her season started with adjustments. The field hockey program has selected new captains for the 2023 season and welcomed new head coach Margaret McLean. The Chargers finished the 2022 season with a record of 9 wins and 11 losses. According to the Charger Athletics website, the team finished with a record of 5 wins and 13 losses last season, marking the first time in two years that the Chargers did not advance to the Northeast-10 Conference (NE-10) playoffs. It became.
“This year was a very difficult year for our team. We obviously didn’t win a lot because we were adjusting to a new coach,” Jacobson said.
McLean gives its teams a total of four mental health days throughout the year. If an athlete decides to take a mental health day, practices and team lifts are waived and do not need to be made up. MacLean has a no-questions-asked policy, meaning that if an athlete takes advantage of a mental health day, no follow-up questions will be asked.
The university has 20 varsity sports and approximately 500 student-athletes, according to its website. MacLean provides mental health support to her team, but that doesn’t apply to all student-athletes representing the school.
“I don’t think athletic departments provide enough mental health resources,” Jacobson said. “I think if you connect with the administration and the coaches, you feel supported. But personally, I don’t feel like I have any more support than that.”
The university offers therapy opportunities through its Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS). According to the CAPS website, the office supports students through individual counseling, support groups and other outreach activities. However, for athletes, this may not be as beneficial as they have more niche needs and fewer slots are available, especially during office hours.
“I didn’t want to use the school’s resources for therapists because I didn’t think they could understand what I was going through and struggling with regarding athletics,” Jacobson said. “I think a therapist specifically for athletes could be a very valuable asset. A lot of Division I schools have sports psychologists, and I know this is not in the budget, but I think they’re slowly bringing it in. I think it should be done.”
MacLean said he thinks “sports counselors and mental health professionals” should be staffed in sports departments for athletes. “If you don’t understand what the athlete is going through, it’s very difficult to know.”
The university is a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), a nonprofit organization that supports the success of college athletes and awards approximately $3.5 billion in athletic scholarships.
The NCAA is working with the Sports Science Institute (SSI) to develop mental health educational resources and programs for NCAA member schools. According to SSI’s webpage, SSI’s mission is to “promote and advance the safety, excellence, and health of collegiate athletes and promote their lifelong physical and mental development.”
SSI also offers a book, “Mental Health Best Practices,” which provides member schools with “resource-independent recommendations to support” the mental health of their student-athletes, according to the NCAA’s website. There is. This publication was developed and endorsed by “25 of the nation’s most prominent mental health, medical, higher education, and sports medicine organizations.” The latest edition of this publication is scheduled to be published on August 1st, according to a newsletter published on the NCAA website.
“The second edition of the Mental Health Best Practices Document affirms the NCAA’s constitutional commitment to student-athletes. It provides a concrete approach to consider for implementation at the campus, athletic department and team level,” said Linda A. Livingston, president of Baylor University and chair of the NCAA Board of Governors. .
While the NCAA provides guidelines and protocols on how to support mental health at the collegiate athletic level, schools make the final decisions. Jacobson and MacLean said they would like to see more support from university athletic departments.
“Athletes are always supposed to be strong and tough, but when you have that image, it can be very lonely and difficult to live up to,” MacLean said. “It’s hard to tell when an athlete is struggling, so I think it’s important to talk about it and break down that stigma. If you can tell someone that they’re not alone, I feel like I can reach my full potential.”
Erin Smith is a member of the New Haven field hockey team.
