Photo courtesy of Unsplash.
Katie Meyer, Robert Martin, Sarah Shulze, and Lauren Bernett. Four lives in less than two months.
What is happening?
Katie Meyer’s sudden death on March 1st, 2022 stunned soccer fans and the athletic community nationwide. As a redshirt senior and member of the decorated Stanford University soccer program, she is regarded as a true competitor, a loyal friend, and the ultimate teammate. Meyer, aside from being an excellent athlete, was described as a bright shining light. Her friends praised her as a “larger-than-life teammate,” as well as “sunshine in every way and on every day.” Her parents mentioned in an interview that they saw no red flags when they had last spoken to Meyer, but they acknowledged how she always had a lot on her plate: “there is anxiety and there is stress to be perfect, to be the best, to be number one.”
ESPN streamed her two phenomenal saves in the NCAA Division I National Championship game, which went through double overtime and then to penalty kicks. Those two saves secured the National Title for Stanford in 2019.
After being described as such a bright, happy, and uplifting person, the world wondered how something like this could’ve happened to someone like her.
Exactly one month later, tragic news over another NCAA athlete, Robert Martin, surfaced. Martin was a 23-year-old graduate student in his fifth year at Binghamton University. Martin was the standout goalie on the men’s lacrosse team. His previous high school coach, Shaun Smith, speaks about his character: “He could have been big time in any sport he chose. He was an awesome leader. He commanded the defense and was very vocal. He wore his emotions on his sleeve.” A game was dedicated in honor of Martin and his legacy as a leader and athlete at Corcoran High School. The cougars warmed up in shirts picturing a goalie stick with the phrase “let’s talk about it” stamped on the chest. The standard admission fee for entrance into Corcoran athletic events was being reallocated to a local suicide prevention group in Martin’s honor.
Less than two weeks later, news of a University of Wisconsin junior named Sarah Shulze dominated Wisconsin headlines. As a member of the cross country, winter track, and spring track teams, Shulze was a year-round athlete. Shulze is described as “a fierce competitor who [was] absolutely electric and continually pushed herself to be great…[she] was energetic, ambitious, committed”. Lastly, “above all other things, Sarah was a power for good in the world.” According to her family, “balancing the demands of athletics, academics, and everyday life overwhelmed her in a single, desperate moment”.
News of the event reached CBS, USAToday, and NBC, but the NCAA failed to comment.
About 12 days after the news on Schulze, no one was prepared to hear about Lauren Bernett. On April 25th, 2022, news emerged about the sophomore catcher on the James Madison University softball team. Due to these unexpected events, JMU canceled the remainder of its season. Bernett was a huge part of JMU’s offense as one of the leaders in hits, home runs, and RBIs on the team.
Bernett was described as “mature beyond her years” with a “smile and laugh [that] were radiant – lighting up every room, bullpen or dugout she walked into and making everyone around her instantly smile.” Her sudden absence left a hole for everyone in her life and every organization she was a part of.
In response to the influx of college athlete suicides, Cailin Bracken of Vanderbilt University’s women’s lacrosse team came out with an article in The Mental Matchup in response to the tragic news over Katie Meyer. In her essay, Bracken compares—almost ironically—college sports to the popular phone game Fruit Ninja:
“Playing a sport in college, honestly, feels like playing fruit ninja with a butter knife. There are watermelons and cantaloupes being flung at you from all different directions, while you’re trying to defend yourself using one of those flimsy cafeteria knives that can’t even seem to spread room-temperature butter. And beyond the chaos and overwhelm of it all, you’ve got coaches and parents and trainers and professors who expect you to come away from the experience unscathed, fruit salad in hand.”
It may not seem clear as to why these four athletes, and many more, chose to end their suffering in this way. All of these athletes were described as vibrant, kind, strong, and the ultimate teammates. So how did they reach this point?
In June of 2021, Simone Biles made a decision during the Tokyo Olympics to withdraw from four different events. The all-around finals, floor finals, vault finals, and bar final competitions. She stepped away because of the intense pressure of the Olympic Competition, and fear of a physical injury due to her declining mental health. While Biles received mostly positive reactions, she also faced harsh critics who labeled her as “weak,” “a quitter”, and “a bad example for young athletes”. In reality, this was the most courageous call she could have made. Making decisions for the preservation of your mind and body needs to be normalized, or elite athletics will never survive this mental health crisis. Even superstars like Simone Biles, the face of USA Gymnastics, suffer from deteriorating mental health. If communities don’t applaud and encourage these decisions, how many more lives will be lost?
The utter grit and personal drive required to be a college athlete are significantly understated. The only advice most athletes are given is to “be organized” and “attend office hours.” No matter how organized you may be, there isn’t sufficient time to be a dedicated collegiate athlete, be a committed student, have a social life, stay in touch with your family, eat proper meals, get enough sleep, and have a second for yourself. The amount of responsibilities contingent on being an athlete in college is simply too overwhelming no matter who you are: a freshman who’s just learning or a senior who’s been through it before. Navigating college athletes is complex, but there are a few things athletes and students can do to help themselves and help each other.
Campus support and community action is vital in supporting our athletes. There are many non-profit organizations devoted to fundraising and raising awareness for mental health support. Connecticut College encourages this awareness through an on-campus club called The Hidden Opponent. THO aims to raise awareness to stop the stigma of mental health implications within the college athletic community. Its founder, Victoria Garrick, was a member of the University of Southern California women’s volleyball team and graduated in 2018. She presented a TedTalk on her experiences at USC as an athlete and her personal struggle with mental health. As a current member of THO x Conn Coll, our campus chapter aims to continue Garrick’s legacy in spreading awareness for a suffering community. Senior President of Conn’s chapter, Abigail King, led various fundraisers, informative meetings, and sponsored athletic events this past year. Hope Olson, soon-to-be junior on the women’s basketball team, is ready to take over as president for the 2022-2023 school year.
At this point, it’s more than just checking in on your teammates. Absolutely check in on them, along with your coaches, and try to be honest with them. Checking in, taking mental health days, and confronting the stigma surrounding mental health is the only way to change the current trajectory of elite athletics. To keep college sports safe for athletes, we must work to stop the stigma, normalize stepping away for a moment if needed, and encourage speaking up when we are hurting. No one can do any of this alone.
