Making Change Happen Faster
It's now been a little over a month and a half since the death of Katie Meyer. Not sure about you, but I am still torn up inside and I didn’t even know her. I can’t imagine what those close to her are going through. I often think about her family, her friends, her teammates. I wonder how they are doing. I think about the aftermath of the Stanford community and how you move on from something like this. I think about her siblings and her parents. And the many people she touched through just being her. My thoughts are still with you all daily.
Around the time of Katie Meyer’s death we were inundated with messages of people sharing in our feelings of loss and devastation. They shared in the feeling of discomfort, sadness, loss and many of us were confused as to why, considering we didn’t even know her. People reached out to us about how they appreciated Female Footballers putting words to their feelings through our podcast, blogs and posts at such a devastating time. These conversations resulted in a unifying feeling of the need for more mental health resources for student athletes. And not just more resources, but the issue of access to them. And although it feels like we’ve felt some momentum, change doesn’t feel fast enough. So this has us not only working harder to help, but it has us asking the question, “How do we make change happen faster?” “How can we help shift the thinking around the mental side of the game so that athletes feel supported more quickly?”
We think about these questions a lot. Change isn’t always in our control. We teach our players that. But something else we teach our players is that change starts with you. Each of us. You can only control you. And YOU can make a difference. No matter how small that may seem, its the little things that make the big changes. So I’m sure you are thinking, how? How do we do this?
We came up with 3 ways each of us can help to create change below:
Speak Up. I don’t care if you are a youth player, parent, coach, or what. USE YOUR VOICE. If you are in a club setting, go to a board meeting and talk to the board about mental support for the players. In the past month we have seen parents emailing their DOC’s, coaches reaching out to find mental skills resources, and even players speak up at Board Meetings (more on that soon.) Talk about it, post about it, write about it, record a tiktok about it. Share your thoughts. Make the conversation grow.
Commit. Commit yourself to a mental health shift. Learn how to breathe, go to therapy, create 10 minutes in your day for some me time. Practice a hobby that brings you joy. It's hard to advocate for change if we aren’t willing to do it for ourselves. Be willing to learn about how and why mental skills are needed to help athletes find balance, success and peace. Commit to the education of the mental side.
Support. Support organizations that promote the mental side of sport. Sure we are one of them. And we aren’t going to lie, we would love your support, your partnerships, your business. But guess what, it doesn’t have to be us. We care so much about this cause, that we just want you to find an organization that speaks to you. One that you feel you can support. Show your support by signing up, volunteering, sharing their content, giving testimonials, etc.
Now these things may seem small, but imagine if every player, parent, coach and advocate were saying and doing these things? Imagine if we all collectively prioritized speaking up, committing and supporting the mental side of the game?
I will tell you what I imagine. I see a soccer world, an athlete world, a world in general with more balance, more empathy, more emotional intelligence. A world with more equality, a world where girls have more confidence, a louder voice, with more support, with less pressure to be perfect, with a healthier sense of self. A more VULNERABLE LESS JUDGEMENTAL world. And because of these things, more winning. Maybe not always on the scoreboard. But winning at being healthy, well rounded leaders and people. Because isn’t that a reason we started playing this sport in the first place?
Sure it's idealistic and a dream world. But as an athlete, I was told to reach for my dreams. To never stop trying to accomplish my dreams. And so I won’t stop. And I won’t stop not just because it is my dream. But I’ll do it so we don’t have any more girls who suffer like Katie Meyer did. I will do it so her life and what she stood for doesn’t get lost or forgotten. Instead, it can be the catalyst for the change we all need and hope for. I will do it so her family knows that her legacy will live on in every little girl who wants to be great. Who wants to be confident. Who wants to be a leader. Who wants to be the mentality.
Ready to join me?