GREENSBORO, N.C. — Student Athlete Mental Health Week is taking place until Saturday at many colleges across the country.
What You Need To Know
- UNC Greensboro, N.C. State and Winston-Salem State are some of the schools participating in Student Athlete Mental Health Week
- It is partnered with the Hilinski's Hope Foundation
- The school is having events all week for student-athletes to decompress and reflect on mental health
Over 160 colleges participate in Student Athlete Mental Health Week, according to the Hilinski's Hope Foundation.
The foundation is named after Tyler Hilinski, the Washington State quarterback who took his life in 2018.
Mason Rudel is one of the students who is participating in the events at UNC Greensboro and even helped plan it as the vice president of the Student Athlete Advisory Commitee.
Rudel is a member of the UNCG cross country team and came to the school to be a part of the running program, although he has been redshirted and sidelined multiple times due to stress fractures.
“That's when I struggled the most on my mental health, but a lot of it was just doing cross-training and spending some time alone, which I think helped me become a better person and helped me get stronger mentally,” Rudel said.
He is a junior studying kinesiology, exercise physiology and coaching. He said he spends about five to 10 hours a week doing homework and studying and uses running as an outlet to clear his mind.
“It's nice when I can just go out for a run and clear my head. My body feels good. A lot of runners don't enjoy running, but I do enjoy it, so it's nice that I can come out and do this every day. And I like it. And I get to spend time with, you know, people I love on my team,” Rudel said.
He says not being able to perform with his team has caused him to struggle with his own mental health concerns, which is why he wants to participate in Student Athlete Mental Heath Week.
“Having these resources really provides me and any other student-athlete who struggles with an opportunity to improve themselves mentally, whether it's performance or just in life,” Rudel said.
He says some of the events taking place on campus include dogs to help students de-stress, a talk on perfectionism, mental health models and more.
Mental health has been an ongoing conversation on college campuses, and Rudel says to check on others around you to show them you are there.
“I’d say it's it's OK to not be OK, but to know if you're not OK, you really got to you got to reach out to somebody. And that's on you to reach out. But you can also check up on your friends because they might be in the same position as you. This is if you're an athlete, if you're not an athlete, if you're anybody, check up on someone you love because they might not be doing all right, but they might not tell you because they don't want you to know,” Rudel said.
He says he will be able to run indoor and outdoor track finally in the winter and spring.