COLLEGE ATHLETES IN CRISIS

Women are at greater risk than men for mental health problems related to their sport, but getting help is still stigmatized in college athletics. It's (past) time for major change.

- ERIN STROUT

As a lifelong soccer player growing up in New Jersey, Leeann Passaro was a member of some of the most decorated youth clubs in the country and had legitimate dreams of playing in the Ivy League. But she recalibrated her college goals after a former high school soccer teammate, Madison Holleran, died by suicide in 2014, at age 19. Passaro was shattered. Holleran, a track and field athlete at the University of Pennsylvania, was everything Passaro wanted to be, but her death, and the subsequent book about her life, What Made Maddy Run, cracked open a conversation about the declining mental health of female athletes.

"I saw a lot of the same things in myself that I saw in Madison, with the perfectionism and always needing to be the best at school and sports," Passaro says.

So when she decided to forgo more rigorous NCAA programs to play soccer at a Division III college, it was Passaro's way of taking her mental health into account. Even so, when she was cut from the team before her senior season, the departure left her grappling with her identity. But she was fortunate. Unlike many student-athletes who experience similar circumstances, Passaro was comfortable seeking help and had a therapist she could call immediately. "We discussed what I could do my senior year without soccer that fills my cup and brings me joy and prepares me for whatever my next step might be," she says. "I see it now as a blessing, but it was extremely hard in that moment."

After graduating in 2020, Passaro became a high school English teacher and lacrosse coach in Annapolis, Maryland. Her experiences as an athlete led her to the role of chief operating officer at The Hidden Opponent, a nonprofit that advocates for student-athlete mental health. The group names student-athlete captains at high schools and colleges who promote mental health conversations and educational programs.