James Ensley understands that it takes a certain vulnerability to play high school sports.
But what Fort Vancouver’s boys basketball coach doesn’t understand is why it feels like there can a stigma behind showing signs of weakness in sport settings. That stigma, he poses, could be one of the reasons mental health is not talked about as much as he thinks it should be in high school sports.
“To me the biggest part is how do we change the culture of letting kids know it’s OK to say that they need help,” Ensley, who has coached at Fort for eight years, said. “And as a coach, how do we portray that to our athletes and students?”
It’s one of the reasons he looks forward to findings of a new WIAA study aimed at understanding mental health among high school athletes.
Earlier this month the WIAA sent to every coach in the state a survey about high school coaches’ experiences around mental health and wellness in high school sports, which is being conducted by Gonzaga University’s sport management department
It’s part of an effort on behalf of the WIAA to learn more about how mental health is discussed in high school sports — something the governing body has not looked at before.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 20 percent of youth ages 13-18 live with a mental health condition. Of those, 11 percent have a mood disorder, 10 percent have a behavior or conduct disorder and 8 percent have an anxiety disorder.
Some coaches in Clark County, like Ensley, believe it’s a pressing issue that deserved more urgency, especially after Washington State quarterback Tyler Hilinski died earlier this month by suicide.
“A coach does not ever fully know how much we impact a student-athlete on our team in the moment,” La Center athletic director Matt Cooke said. “It is important for coaches, teachers, and any adult working with kids to remember that everything we do, everything we say will impact the youth we work with.”
Coaches have extensive guidelines and training surrounding issues such as concussions to better inform coaches. With mental health, the goal is to provide coaches with education, according to WIAA executive director Mike Colbrese.
Colbrese added that while Hilinski’s death is a tragedy, it doesn’t place an additional urgency on concerns about student mental health at the high school level.
“That has always been a concern,” he said.
Once the results are released to the WIAA, the governing body hopes to use the information to provide educational tools for coaches, which will likely come in the form of keynote speakers at its annual “coaches school,” a four-day workshop that takes place every summer in Yakima.
Gonzaga reached out to the WIAA before Christmas with the hopes of polling every high school coach in Washington state – the WIAA estimates there are roughly 12,000. It also plans to poll coaches in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association, New York’s high school athletics governing body.
“I didn’t know what to anticipate, and that’s why we were curious about the information,” Colbrese said. “When Gonzaga contacted us and indicated if we’d be interested … we obviously want to learn those things, because you make the coaches stronger and the kids stronger.”
Within 24 hours of it being sent out, more than 600 coaches had completed the survey, according to Gonzaga assistant professor of sports and physical education Heidi Nordstrom. Although the study is anonymous, the final inquiry asks for coaches to provide personal information if they are interested in participating in a focus group regarding student wellness. At least 70 of the more than 600 coaches in the first 24 hours, expressed interest and provided personal contact information.
The immediate response was surprising to the WIAA.
“A lot of times we think about the physical health of participants and we forget about the mental health sometimes – making sure they’re emotional set and comfortable with their teammates, coaches and themselves,” Colbrese said. “That’s why we went and agreed to do the survey. I hadn’t followed up to learn what responses were like, but after that many responses, that’s pretty good.”
The Columbian obtained a copy of the anonymous study, which was sent out to coaches statewide on Jan. 4 and will remain open until Feb. 15.
The purpose of the study, it reads, is to “find out from a coach’s perspective, what knowledge they have around the topic of student-athlete wellness, and what additional support or information they need in order to be a support system for the athletes.”
Colbrese estimates 500 coaches attend the “Coaches School” each summer. The goal of the extended weekend is to teach coaches “everything but the Xs and Os.”
Topics typically include how to deal with parents, how to develop a good coaching staff, how to interact with administrators, how male coaches deal with female athletes and vice versa, he said.
The results of the study will be used to shape the educational tools provided to coaches.
“If there are definite areas that the respondents feel that we need to be providing more education, then we’ll work toward providing experts in that field and including them in our ‘coaches school,’ ” Colbrese said.
Nordstrom labels it an “exploratory study,” which means after the initial results are collected and analyzed, there will be a follow-up study.
Due to the anonymous nature of the study, it is not clear how many of the respondents are Clark County coaches.
But some area coaches believe it’s well warranted.
“There has been massive amounts of training (around concussions) and it’s been reactive,” Ensley said. “I feel like this is being a little bit more proactive.”
Are you a coach, athlete or once were and wish to talk about your experience with mental health and high school athletes? Contact the reporter by email at andy.buhler@columbian.com or phone at 360-735-4557.
