Sports Mental Health Monday – May

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and the Alliance aims to decrease the stigma around the issue of mental health in sports, which will ultimately lead to positive sports experiences for athletes. We are grateful when athletes share their stories. Today we hear from Addie Froehlich a senior at Cox High School in Virginia Beach. Froehlich discusses how the pressure she was placing on herself to perform athletically was affecting her performance on and off the field. We encourage you to watch the full conversation with Addie Froehlich where she details her struggles and how she overcame them. She will headed to Villanova University in the fall to continue to her athletic and academic pursuits.

Full interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuXcJddI-Kk

Kicking off Mental Health Awareness Month, we encourage people to go back to the beginning of our focus on mental health in sports. Following our March 2020 event, “Building Mental Wellness, Boosting Sports Performance”, the Hall of Fame & CHKD hosted multiple virtual forums to address this issue and offer support, education, and resources to all involved in youth sports. “A Pandemic Playbook”, “Bench The Stigma”, and “#WHoRU“, brought together former and current athletes, clinical professionals, coaches, and parents to discuss a wide range of topics regarding mental health in sports. These forums were the springboard to creating the Youth Sports Mental Health & Wellness Alliance, and are available on the Hall of Fame’s website under the COMMUNITY tab. Today we go back to “Bench The Stigma”, and encourage people to learn more about and educate themselves on the issue of mental health in sports. While the stigma around the conversation continues to decrease, our preparedness to face the issue must continue to improve.