OK to not be OK: ACC emphasizing mental health
Winston-Salem Journal
Nolan Lennon is living the dream these days.
A few weeks after graduating from Clemson, he’s already pursuing an MBA as he prepares for his final season of eligibility with a soccer program that played for a national title just four seasons ago.
He’s tall, tan and in the type of physical condition that few people outside of Division I athletics ever achieve. He’s eloquent and confident as he explains his career goals as a hospital administrator and even the long path it’s taken to get here.
It’s a contrast from just a few years ago, when Lennon wasn’t confident in his place in college or soccer, or, really, anywhere. Once a highly recruited goalkeeper, three torn ACLs in a matter of 16 months left Lennon a shell of himself on the field.
“I found the hardest thing wasn’t rehabbing,” he said. “It was coming back and trying to play soccer and sucking, trying to play soccer again and just being terrible.
“I don’t play like I used to play, and trying to cope with that, just being the way that I am, I wanted to take it upon myself and get it done and figure it out.”
Lennon eventually sought help from a sport psychologist to get back on solid footing at Clemson, and today, he’s a champion for mental health services for other student-athletes. He was one of nearly 500 in attendance Tuesday as the ACC hosted its first Mental Health Summit in Durham, inviting athletes, administrators and mental health professionals from around the conference for two days of seminars and conversations as the ACC and its schools hope to set the bar nationally for mental health services available to student-athletes.
“The ACC needs to be a leader in this,” Commissioner John Swofford said. “We’re remiss if we’re not.”
As of January, all Power Five conferences are required to make mental health services and resources available to athletes in addition to providing education and information on how to access those services. North Carolina’s ACC programs were ahead of the mandate, with Duke, North Carolina, N.C. State and Wake Forest all employing someone who oversees student-athlete health and wellness.
That investment is obvious from a financial standpoint. So, too, was it from a visibility standpoint as the tables in the Sheraton Imperial’s Empire Ballroom were filled with people wearing the logos and colors of every school in the league.
For nearly an hour, there was barely a sound as Kym and Mark Hilinski told the story of their son, Tyler, a former quarterback at Washington State who took his own life in January 2018 after battling depression in silence.
