Mental health is something I've always regarded as something we enhance through youth sports. Until last week, I though mostly about positive enhancements. The youth sports platform is great, for example, for helping kids learn empathy, self-discipline, respect, gratitude, work ethic, mental toughness, etc. This is true, of course when the club, coach, and parent teams are not driving obsessively towards winning at the expense of these important foundational building blocks. As a coach, my understanding of mental health in soccer has expanded to include working on a few of the typical challenge areas like developing courage, confidence, a sense of teamwork, and overcoming mental blocks that stifle performance. The Alter Ego Effect by Todd Herman is a great book I'd recommend if you're interested in overcoming mental blocks. It's always a huge victory for me when I see players overcoming mental challenges and emerging as newly improved players and people. Last week, Hayley Woolner and her soon-to-be husband Paul and I found ourselves in one of the most interesting three-way conversations I've had in a long time. I was hiking up and down the staircase at the Wolverhampton Wolves  training academy in the UK. While our players were getting some world-class training I was feeling cramped and unexercised after several days of long plane and bus rides. Hayley's desk was at the foot of the stairs. While I climbed up and down the small staircase to stretch my legs, I asked Hayley why she was there and what her passion is for soccer. She said: "My passion is for the ones that don't make it." The Darker Side of Mental Health in SoccerHayley's question stopped me in my tracks. Literally. I turned, came down the stairs and parked myself in front of her with a big open question mark over my head. "What you just said got my attention," I told Hayley and Paul. "What is your background and what can you tell me about the players that don't make it? I'm interested."Hayley is a mental health nurse. Paul worked security for the Academy. One of Hayley's biggest concerns is for mental health in soccer. One of the problems she would love to solve has to do with the unacceptably high suicide rate among players who don't make the cut. As with any competitive process, getting onto a First team that plays in the English Premier league is a gauntlet. Kids start off very young. They train hard. They hope to get noticed. They try out - often more than once - to make the Academy. If they make the Academy, their first year is all about proving themselves. They compete against other players who have been playing since before they started primary school from countries where football (AKA Soccer) is by far the most popular sport everywhere - from backyards and schoolyards to pubs and stadiums. It would be fair to say that most everyone knows the game of soccer, millions of kids (and/or parents) have dreams of playing on a first team, and being in the culture or out of the culture have an impact on everyday life. The talent pool is deep and the competition for those coveted first-team spots is intense. If a kid spends their entire life working towards one goal. If a family invests all of its resources towards one goal. If siblings are sidelined in favor of superstar players and those who are passed during the climb up the Academy selection process are looked down at as lesser capable people, mental health-related conditions like anorexia, anxiety, depression, and even suicide are often not far away. The lights came on and left me feeling a little uneasy as I thought about the very small percentage of children who make the cut over and over again on their way to the first team - and even more about the vast majority who don't. With Hayley's help,