Meet Sycamore coaches helping athletes’ mental health

SYCAMORE – A group of social workers, teachers and coaches at Sycamore High School has come together to form a coalition to support student athletes’ health, both body and mind.

High school social worker Maryellen Spicer, a mother of student athletes, said she came across an Instagram post in spring 2022 with pictures of more than a dozen collegiate athletes. But one harsh reality stood out.

“They were college athletes who had died by suicide,” Spicer said. “As a social worker who advocates for all students’ mental health, I just reposted that picture and said, ‘We have to start talking about this.’”

Suicide rates among college athletes have doubled over the past 20 years, according to a 2024 study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Almost immediately after seeing the social media post, Spicer collaborated with coworkers and eventually brainstormed with student athlete leaders. The group worked to identify some unique triggers athletes may face that could impact their mental health.

The list included, among other things: high expectations student athletes set for themselves; pressures to perform from coaches, parents, friends and others. Those together can create high stress levels and impact their school-life balance, Spicer said.

“One of the biggest things is oftentimes student athletes don’t want to show, or share that they are struggling because they might view it as a sign of weakness,” Spicer said.

Mallory Wolf, a social worker and assistant coach for the Sycamore varsity girls soccer team, said she and other soccer coaches recently started mental health check-ins with a student athlete at every practice.

“There really are no warning signs of suicide and when people are struggling,” Wolf said. “We’re really putting it on the players to check with one another, and then the head coach doing check-ins.”

“We want to help our athletes be prepared mentally just as much as they are physically.”

—  Luke Spicer

The student athlete mental health coalition isn’t only comprised of social workers. Various student leaders partake in discussions on the group’s direction. The group also occasionally hosts speakers such as Sycamore High School graduate Kylie Ryder.

Other Sycamore High School teachers, like Mark Holstein, who’s been a varsity coach for 23 years, joined Spicer and Wolf to support student athletes.

Holstein said the stresses of performing at varsity level have increased tenfold in the more than two decades he’s coached high school athletes.

“Sports at the varsity level have become a way of life, and it’s rarely just an extracurricular activity,” Holstein said. “With that comes physical demand, and now we are learning, an equally, if not greater, mental demand.”

Holstein said the student athlete mental health coalition aims to raise awareness about the mental side of sports and give athletes tools to help manage stress levels and seek help as needed.

Mallory Spicer’s son, Luke Spicer, a social studies teacher and volleyball coach at Sycamore High, also is part of the coalition. He said high school sports seasons are “unbelievably taxing.”

“We often see the physical aspect of this, but the mental side of it is so much easier to hide,” Luke Spicer said. “We want to help our athletes be prepared mentally just as much as they are physically. I think it is fantastic that we have gotten so much positive support and feedback, and only hope we can continue to reach as many people as we can.”

Meg Cohrs, a Sycamore High School math teacher and assistant girls basketball coach, said she’s involved with the coalition because, as a former student athlete, she understands the struggles her students may be going through.

“Throughout my athletics career, I had both coaches and a support system that valued my mental health,” Cohrs said. “I’m grateful that I’ve found colleagues who share the same values and that we have an opportunity to provide a safe space to talk about mental health for current and future athletes.”