The Penn State women's soccer program has found success on the field all season long, but perhaps what is the most special is what they've dedicated the season to fighting off the field.
The Nittany Lions put mental health awareness at the centerline this season after news of athlete suicides stunned the college sports world this past year. After the death of the Stanford women's soccer goalkeeper Katie Meyer deeply impacted the soccer community, the Nittany Lions knew they could no longer watch what was happening from the sidelines.
They knew they had to tackle the challenge head on.
Before the 2022 season began, redshirt senior goalkeeper Katherine Asman led the mental health awareness dialogues in the Nittany Lions' locker room. Asman's mission was to shine light on the existing stigma that was pushed in the darkness.
"Before the season started, Coach Ann [Cook] and I talked about how we wanted to bring mental health into the program and what that would look like," Asman said.
Through personal team discussions and utilizing resources from Penn State Counseling and Psychological Services, the team became proactive about prioritizing their mental health. By continually checking in with one another, these habits became ingrained into their routines.
"It's worked into all of our daily lives at this point. It took those big steps, big meetings, and long hours spent on it, so now it's just threaded throughout our daily activities," Asman said.
In a highly competitive environment like college sports, redshirt senior Ally Schlegel recognizes it can be challenging to let your guard down. She credits the program for being a safe place where teammates can advocate for one another.
"I'm really grateful to be on a team that is able to foster an environment where vulnerability is encouraged and honored," Schlegel said.
Through being vulnerable and having these conversations, Schlegel was left feeling empowered and better connected to her teammates.
"It was a really impactful conversation to have because we're trying to foster that environment of vulnerability and being open with one another, in tandem with our culture of excellence, a culture of blue-collar and the attitude of a champion. These are pillars that we believe in wholeheartedly, but also our other pillar of united family," Schlegel said. "I think that vulnerability goes hand in hand, if we're going to be a united family that means checking in on each other knowing how we're doing and not necessarily hiding those types of emotions."
Once the Nittany Lions knew how to better advocate for one another, they knew it was time to extend their reach beyond their locker room.
Asman said, "One of the first goals that we had this season as a team was this idea of wanting to make sure we were all living what we were preaching. We wanted to get our team first on the same page and see the impact that had on all of us directly, and then we wanted to do something public."
Every game this season, the team has taken the field wearing warm-up shirts that read "mental health matters" on the front. Through these shirts, which were designed entirely by the team, the Nittany Lions hoped to enlighten the community about what matters most.
"The overall theme of the shirts was this idea of wanting to make a statement, wanting to get people to double check it, and also wanting to bring light to a few different things," Asman said. "That included on our sleeves having KM19 for Katie Meyer, having people understand her story as well as the initiative that her parents are now taking with the organization that they created, Katie's Save."
The shirts also include the number 988 on the other sleeve, which is the new number for the National Suicide Hotline.
"Each piece of the shirt had a lot of thought behind it," Asman said. "It was such a cool experience creating them."
By repping the mission on the big stage, the Nittany Lions have used their platforms to educate the community about life-saving mental health resources available.
The stigma surrounding mental health is something that athletes today know all too well. Playing a competitive sport often comes with the expectations of toughness and strength, and this is instilled early on. However, traits that make these athletes persevere through the pain are why some feel they aren't allowed to ever break.
"There are these polarized notions that if you're mentally tough, that you can't have a bad day, you know if you're mentally tough, you can't cry. That's just not true at all," Schlegel said.
Asman echoes a similar sentiment.
"The stigma that surrounds mental health is this association that vulnerability is a weakness and as soon as we break that I think we can make so many more strides," Asman said.
Through their example of embracing vulnerability, the Nittany Lions have been able to reach new heights on the field.
Asman believes the team rallying behind the same goal has created a shared identity and a team dedicated to helping one another work to become the best version of themselves.
Prioritizing each other's well-being, with full support from their coaches and staff, helps them understand and respect each other's needs during practices and games.
Asman knows that the invisible weights her teammates carry off the field do not magically disappear the second they take the field.
"You can step in between the white lines, but that doesn't mean that everything that's going on outside of the white lines just vanishes," she said. "You're always in between the white lines."
Supporting one another through the highs and lows allows them to elevate one another to perform to the best of their abilities.
"We have brought so much more of the mental game into what we're doing. In a lot of our conversations, we talked about communication on our field and knowing your people," Asman said. "It's the idea that I need to understand where my outside backs or where my center backs are mentally before we're going into a game to understand how to help them best perform."
The Nittany Lions' work to help spread mental health awareness is just getting started.
The impact of their advocacy will continue to inspire others to use their voice long after the season is over.
"The goal was to empower all of us so that we can go and empower five people, so that they can empower the next five people. If you think about the math, it's crazy how that just keeps going," Asman said.
Schlegel believes that in order to create change on a larger scale, others must take a look at cultivating a safe culture around them.
"It really starts internally in the organizations we are a part of and the friendships we are a part of and the relationships we have," Schlegel said. "Change happens one thing at a time, one domino at a time,"
The ripple effect starts with leading by example.
"To have that, you have to be it," she said. "For me to have a culture of vulnerability, I need to tell people what's going on."
For the Nittany Lions, "Mental Health Matters" has always been more than just a slogan.
Amid an unimaginable situation, the team sought to transform a tragedy by using it as a catalyst to evoke gravitational change.
"We felt we could channel this traumatic experience and try to make it into something powerful, something that we can control in our community," Schlegel said.
The Nittany Lions remain committed to one day defeating the stigma for good. By taking a stand, they have put the stigma on the sidelines and shown others what it means to be a champion. By reminding others that it's okay not to be okay, they continue to do their part in achieving their ultimate goal- save lives.
For this team heading into the NCAA tournament, there would be no greater victory.