Raleigh event ‘Level Up’ offers mental health resources for student athletes

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Athletes, mental health professionals, coaches, and families all huddled together at the Boys & Girls Club on Fox Road in Raleigh Saturday to offer student athletes guidance.

Read more 2 injured in Durham shooting on Hoover Road; woman hit by gunfire taken to hospital, man wounded by flying glass

From football and basketball to track and field, and daily life, the students from all over the Triangle teamed up at the mentoring event called Level Up. 

”I played last year on a varsity team,” said Anthony Evans.

The winning goal was to score something bigger than trophies — creating stronger athletes by building stronger people physically, financially, spiritually, and mentally.

“It’s important that our youth are educated,” Level Up founder Ryan Ray said. “It’s important that we raise the awareness around mental health and then provide them with the outlets and the resources and the information to be able to meet them where they are.”

One recent student athlete told people to be patient.

“I was speaking to a wise man,” Anthony Evans added. “He told me, like, what do you do when God doesn’t answer your questions immediately, you know, he told me, just remember, stand still and wait for him. And don’t be impatient.”

Organizers say the gathering wasn’t a typical locker-room lecture. It’s more like a playbook for life with real talk —questions and answers —about the pressures facing today’s athletes as they tackle the world of sports, school, recruiting, social media, and NIL — name, image, likeness.

“If we look nationally, about 20 percent of our youth experienced some sort of mental health or anxiety disorders,” Ray added. “If we look a little more myopic in North Carolina, over 128,000, about 40 percent of our youth report having some type of stress, anxiety, mental health challenges.”

Read more Harnett County teen accepted into 91 colleges, earns $3 million in scholarship offers

Discussions on performance anxiety kicked off one Level Up session, coaching the athletes on how to stay cool when the pressure cooker hits overtime.

“You know the two things that cause people anxiety are their finance and their mental health,” Level Up organizer Tammy Ziglar said. “You bring these two together and maybe we can make a difference.”

Organizers say today’s athletes are carrying more than equipment bags. They’re carrying expectations, online scrutiny, and life-changing decisions at younger ages than ever before.

“So, today is really all about empowering our youth, educating our youth as well as the parents around some of these challenges related to finances,” Ray said. “And how do we ease some of that stress and anxiety so that they can live really successful lives?”

“What I learned today is that you can’t measure up to anybody else’s expectations but your own,” student athlete Ethan Macklin added.

Read more Scheffler’s putter goes cold, forcing big comeback for shot at 2nd straight PGA Championship