The Mental Matchup

In this week’s episode of the Mental Matchup, Kat talks with Kace Boland, a former DI volleyball athlete and pre-med student at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. For most of her life, Kace has struggled with mental health challenges, and has been diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, PTSD, inattentive type ADHD, and double depression (persistent and major depressive disorder combined). Kace was forced to take an 18-month long medical leave of absence from school and retire from volleyball. During this episode, she reflects on her story of perseverance through hospitalizations, suicidal ideation, disordered eating, identity shifts, and the lessons she learned in the process.

In this week’s episode of The Mental Matchup, Kat and Schuyler talk to Noah Rubin about his tennis career and his mental health centric project, Behind the Racquet. After winning multiple international tournaments as early as age 11, Noah put together an incredible youth tennis career leading him to be ranked 6th in the world as a junior. Noah went on to play at Wake Forest for a year, before turning fully professional. We talk about the pressure of competing at a high level from an early age, how he dealt with the extreme highs and lows of his professional career, finding the balance of being comfortable in uncomfortable environments while also avoiding the feeling of being perpetually unsettled, and of course, the power of vulnerability, especially in the context of Behind the Racquet. Behind the Racquet is a project designed to showcase tennis players as humans, and allow them to be open about whatever experiences they have struggled with.

Leeann Passaro is a former student-athlete from Washington & Lee University and the current Chief Operating Officer at The Hidden Opponent. The Hidden Opponent (THO) is a non-profit and advocacy group focused on addressing the stigma of mental health in the athlete community, and providing support to athletes experiencing mental health challenges. Leeann has struggled with anxiety and depression herself, and has translated her experiences into a passion for helping others through THO. In this special episode, we talk to Leeann about THO’s mission, strategies, accomplishments, and future goals. Spoiler, but not spoiler because it is pretty clear: THO and The Mental Matchup might as well be sister organizations, and we have a massive crush on THO and fangirl all the things they do. 

For more information on The Hidden Opponent https://thehiddenopponent.com/ and follow them on instagram @thehiddenopponent or twitter @hidden_opponent

Trigger waring: discussion of suicidal ideation 

This week’s episode of The Mental Matchup features Reagan Rust, the first D1 ice hockey player to come out of Mississippi, and now professional hockey player in Stockholm Sweden. Reagan is the founder of the Female Athlete Society, a free platform that connects female athletes to each other, and to resources, to help them navigate their athletic career, feeling empowered and confident. She is also the host of the Unpaved Path Podcast where Reagan interviews people in the sports world who blazed their own trail, to highlight their successes, failures, and the lessons they learned. In our conversation, we talk about her first experience with depression and suicidal ideation in the ninth grade, and how she has dealt with depression and axiety, on and off, since then. We discuss the stresses of her recruiting process, the advice she gives to other athletes currently in the recruiting process, the sacrifices she made as a youth player, the difficulties she faced during her first two years in college at RIT including her transferring process, and her experience after transferring to BU. We also cover her inspiration behind the Female Athlete Society, how her support system showed up for her during tough times, and the structure of ice hockey leagues–Kat and Schuyler were both pretty clueless, and learned a lot. 

Find the Unpaved Path Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4GdXWwRO9nKEY53gpT2HiQ?si=3eadfa6fdcbf4004

Check out the Female Athlete Society:

https://www.femaleathletesociety.co/

And learn more about Reagan:

https://www.reaganrust.com/

In this week’s episode of The Mental Matchup, we talk to Morgan Alexander, who recently graduated from Syracuse University, where she played lacrosse. Morgan is planning to go onto a career in sports journalism, and develop her mental health focused sweatshirt company. Morgan first experienced mental health in the form of anxiety, and immediately it became clear to her that mental health should be treated the same as physical health. However, the stigma surrounding mental health prevented her from sharing her experience until much later. Morgan’s collegiate career was unfortunately filled with numerous knee injuries and surgeries, and she was not able to step on the field and compete until her senior season. Sometimes against the advice of doctors and her parents, Morgan continued to push ahead, work on her rehab, and was able to return to the field for a successful senior year and fifth year. Throughout all the injuries and setbacks, Morgan was able to find meaning in each challenge, and leaned on her religion, journaling, and support system to keep pushing forward. She has been involved with Morgan’s Message from a very early stage, and we are so grateful for her work with Morgan’s Message and in the wider mental health space.

Trigger Warning: discussion of suicide and suicide attempt

This week’s episode of The Mental Matchup features Scott Day, a former Division III baseball player at York College of PA, and now Director of Communications/Operations at Sean’s House and SL24: UnLocke the Light Foundation, an organization that provides free mental health resources, education, and assistance. Scott spent the first 15 years of his career working in Communications and PR at four different Division I institutions. In 2014, at the age of 31, he began showing signs of depression. At the age of 32 he had his first near suicide attempt, and struggled for many months following before getting the help he needed. In 2018, he opened up about his struggles, and is now a passionate mental health advocate. Scott is also a husband, father of three, and an amazingly honest and open human being. In this week’s episode, we talk about his personal mental health journey, his advice for people who are in dark mental health spaces, his advice for people with loved ones who are struggling, the power of vulnerability, some of the most powerful moments he has witnessed as the Director of Sean’s House, how he approaches the topic of mental health with his kids, and a lot more.

This week’s episode of The Mental Matchup features Brittnay Todd, who is the owner and clinical director of B Balanced Counseling & Wellness. Brittany attended the University of Florida where she achieved her bachelor’s degree in Criminology and Psychology, while competing as a swimmer. Brittany was an Olympic Trial swimmer in 2000 and 2004 and competed in NCAA’s, but dealt with a variety of mental health challenges during her swimming career including eating disorders, depression, and bipolar disorder. When her career ended due to a shoulder injury, she dealt with the difficulties of losing her identity as an athlete. As a former elite athlete, and someone who was involved in sport from a very early age, Brittany continues to be inspired by the connection of the body and mind in her practice as a psychotherapist. In 2017 Brittany graduated from Walden University with master’s level degrees in both Clinical Psychology and Clinical Counseling to establish a private counseling practice. Through Brittany’s own personal experiences in her mental health struggles, as well as her education, she is able to provide incredibly diverse and valuable information during this episode.

In this week’s episode of The Mental Matchup, Kat and Schuyler talk to Cailin Bracken. Cailin (Kay-leen) grew up in New Jersey playing lacrosse and committed to play at Vanderbilt, where she is now a sophomore. Starting in her senior year of high school, Cailin dealt with depression and disordered eating. A week into preseason of her senior lacrosse season, it was cancelled due to COVID-19. Like many other moments later in her life, she took the time to reflect and focus on her mental health. Although she continued to deal with difficult mental health challenges into her freshman year of college, along with a concussion and hard choices surrounding whether or not to continue playing lacrosse, Cailin’s self-awareness, radical gratitude, and amazing support system are some of the things that not only got her through those moments, but became even stronger during them. She is one of the most open and vulnerable guests we have had the pleasure of talking with, which is reflected also in her wellness Instagram account @Kalewithcail, and blog ownyourstory.community where she uses her love for writing to encourage others to share their stories.

This week’s episode of The Mental Matchup features Kaleigh (KK) Kurtz, who is one of Schuyler’s teammates on the North Carolina Courage. KK grew up playing soccer in South Carolina, and committed to play collegiately at Richmond University. The stress surrounding her recruiting process led her to finding her first therapist, who also helped her work through abandonment issues rooted in friends moving away from a young age. After her freshman year at Richmond, KK transferred to the University of South Carolina, and dealt with the difficulties of going from a consistent starter, to a player who was coming off the bench. She went on to play professionally in Sweden, and later in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL). During her professional career, she has managed body image issues, separating her self-worth from her athletic performance, and playing behind some of the best players in the world. In this episode, KK shares how she has used therapy to work through her mental challenges, how she has been able to fall back in love with the game of soccer, and a whole lot more about her experiences as a collegiate and professional athlete.

This week’s episode of The Mental Matchup is with Joanne P. McCallie, also known as Coach P. Coach P is known for her successful basketball coaching career, which has spanned Auburn, Maine, Michigan State, and Duke University. She is the only coach to have won conference championships in four different conferences. Her overall record is 646-255, she has won gold medals coaching US youth basketball teams, and has been named coach of the year multiple times. Coach P is also an advocate for mental health, as she was diagnosed with manic-depressive disorder (also known as bi-polar disorder) when she was 30. She was not open about her diagnosis until more recently, and has since published a book, Secret Warrior: A Coach and a Fighter, On and Off the Court.

In the episode, we talk about how she dealt with her mental health episodes while coaching, the decisions surrounding when and how to be open about her diagnosis, how she managed her players who struggled with mental health challenges, and how she plans to be a mental health advocate moving forward. Coach P has started a mental health foundation which you can follow at @coachp4life on all social media platforms.

If you want to purchase Coach P’s book, Secret Warrior, you can find it from a variety of distributors, but we recommend our favorite used book platform, Better World Books: https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/Secret-Warrior--A-Coach-and-Fighter--On-and-Off-the-Court-9781646632909