In the world of college sports, 30% of surveyed athletes feel extremely mentally overwhelmed, according to an NCAA study.
Among those in research considering entering the transfer portal, 61% of female athletes considered their mental health part of the decision process. 47% of student-athletes feel comfortable personally seeking support from a mental health provider at their school.
Despite these low comfort levels, mental health has become a high priority for athletic programs and student-athletes nationwide. Players have become leaders in battling mental health and promoting wellness, joining various committees to advocate and spread resources for their community.
At the forefront of this fight at ASU is senior gymnast Cienna Samiley, the president of ASU’s mental health committee, a subset of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).
SAAC aims to create positive student-athlete experiences on campus. The program provides resources through subcommittees to foster a positive environment and maintain wellness among players.
With Samiley as president and her teammate, senior Jada Mangahas, as vice president, the mental health subcommittee holds events tailored to give players tools to enforce positive mental health, including stress management techniques, Devils 4 Devils counseling, arts and crafts, and guest speakers.
"Sometimes we'll have meetings where we'll have guest speakers; like our sports psychologist has talked about his story with mental health and how we can help student-athletes on campus," Mangahas said.
The events are accessible to all players to enforce positive mental health practices.
"The meetings are just to give people resources to help further their mental health strategies in their everyday life, especially since we have stressful schedules as athletes and we just have to balance being a student and athlete," Samiley said.
As a senior, this is Samiley’s first year as president of the subcommittee. She became involved in the initiative last year when a previous Sun Devil gymnast on the subcommittee spoke to the team about it.
Samiley also became a peer health educator last year, an initiative through Sun Devil Fitness and Wellness. Samiley educates athletes and staff on substance misuse and abuse as a peer health educator. She had the opportunity to give a presentation on the topic last summer at a conference in Colorado.
"It’s great to hear her recognized for the work she’s putting in, gaining that experience of getting up in front of a conference style and doing presentations and things like that," Gym Devils coach Jay Santos said.
Santos cited Samiley as a caring person who always takes the extra step to help people, making her a great mental health advocate. He also said she is a great mental health advocate, a caring person who always takes the extra step to help people.
"She has the ability to recognize, 'Hey, it seems like you were kinda having a tough moment … and will go out of her way to bring it up or acknowledge it,'" Santos said. "She’s sent me a text on a random occasion … you know, she’ll be super supportive."
Before Samiley's involvement last year, she wasn't aware that the subcommittee existed or of the opportunities on campus to discuss mental health.
Mangahas also did not engage in the subcommittee's activities before her involvement, but she says the outreach has been successful, and many student-athletes use their resources.
"I actually have had a lot of people come up to me and tell me that they really enjoy when we have our mental health events because they think that they're very helpful," Mangahas said. "We send out our resources pretty often, through email or at our meetings. We'll hand out a sheet that has all the resources on it."
Santos applauds his gymnasts' work with mental health and is proud to see them spearheading an essential topic on campus.
"Life can be tough, and everybody needs that ear, needs the ability to be heard," Santos said. "There's a lot of stress, lot of pressures out there. People need outlets, and they need safe spaces to be able to discuss things and all of that."
Aside from balancing school work and their sport, the nature of gymnasts' attempting to obtain a perfect score during meets can create additional stress, especially growing up in the sport.
"You're kind of taught to shake everything off, and you can't ever be down because they want you to be performing well; in my sport, being perfect," Mangahas said. "A lot of times, people don't realize that it's okay to have mental health struggles. That doesn't mean you're weak or that you're not working hard enough."
Edited by Alfred Smith III, Walker Smith and Grace Copperthite.
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