When Jarron Seals feels overwhelmed on the field, he now has the tools to respond.
The Arsenal Tech senior uses a technique he learned from Dr. Elaine Gilbert, a pediatric psychologist with Riley Children’s Health. He takes a deep breath in and begins counting, touching each of his fingers to his thumb.
The practice helps in those moments when questions like “Why am I not getting the ball more?” and “How can I get my coach to notice me?” start to creep in.
“It slows down my brain,” Seals said of the exercise. “It makes me stop thinking about anything and everything.”
Seals learned the trick as part of a new program at Arsenal Tech High School. The mental resiliency pilot program was co-created by Gilbert with support from the Tech Titan’s athletic department.
The program infuses sports psychology lessons into Titans’ football practices in an effort to reframe how student-athletes approach competition. Athletes meet once a month in the offseason for discussions about sportsmanship, wellness and identity beyond sports.
During the competition season, Gilbert attends games and coaches psychology from the sidelines.
Now in its third year, the program has brought a shift in how coaches and mentors approach high school athletics. Their goal is to talk about mindset early and get ahead of mental blocks before athletes ever make it onto the field.
Coach Steve Moorman joined Tech this year after stints with Lawrence Central and North Central. He says the program is a step up from the days when a coach might bench an athlete after a big blow-up on the field.
“We’ve come to the point where you’ve got somebody to talk to this kid,” Moorman said. “It helps us coaches tremendously when you can have somebody other than yourself talking the same language about mental health.”
Lessons that transcend sport
Gilbert began working with Tech two years ago. She and Tech’s athletic department decided to focus on the football team because those student-athletes were seen as leaders at their school.
During football season, Gilbert may work with as many as 60 to 75 students on the team. In the offseason, the doctor continues working with 30 to 50 students, opening the lessons up to athletes from other teams as well. Summer can bring up to 100 students, Gilbert said.
The doctor invites guest experts and mentors to meet with athletes. They work on lessons about balance and perspective.
Instruction sometimes includes short drills or creative activities, such as mural painting. Teens work on setting goals and learn how to adjust in real time when plans change.
It’s a series of lessons the doctor and coaches say they hope the teens apply to life beyond sports. It’s also a model Gilbert says she hopes other schools can incorporate into their classrooms and practices.
Though things are improving, suicide has been a leading cause of death among youth for the past decade, according to data compiled by the Indiana Youth Institute.
“We don’t have enough resources and accessibility is really hard,” Gilbert said of treating mental health. “So if we can teach some of these skills in a preventative model, the hope is we can really alter anxiety and depression.”
A focus on relationships
The Tech athletic department’s support has helped make the partnership successful, Gilbert said. Coaches attend lectures and reiterate lessons at practice and study sessions.
Moorman said he’s especially interested to see how Gilbert’s teachings can help athletes rebound from mistakes and focus on their next play.
“Once you start dwelling on bad plays, it just accumulates to more bad plays,” Moorman said. “She’s telling them how to deal with stress, being in a safe space. That’s very healthy for these guys.”
It’s especially significant among the teens he works with. Moorman said. Nearly 90% of students attending Arsenal Tech are Black or Hispanic, according to state data. And studies show young Black and Hispanic men are less likely to seek mental health care than their white peers.
Some of that has to do with stigmas around discussing mental health and a lack of diverse representation in the medical field.
Data from the American Psychological Association shows nearly 80% of psychologists working in 2023 were white, leaving a gap in mental health professionals who can relate to young Black and Hispanic students’ lived experiences.
But the conversation is shifting. After more than 30 years of coaching, Moorman said he’s seen a change in the way young people talk about mental health — especially coming out of the coronavirus pandemic.
“In the African American culture, it was kind of a taboo to even think about mental health,” said Moorman, who is Black. “Nowadays, you’ve got to be able to build that special relationship to where that kid feels like, ‘I can go talk to coach Moorman about anything that’s bothering me.’”
Seeking understanding
For Le’Paris Shivers, it’s already made a difference. The senior was one of two teens who stepped up to demonstrate a new breathing exercise during an early March mental resiliency lesson.
He said he appreciated the exercise, which focused on deep breathing and the nervous system, because it helped explain why certain reactions happen on the field.
“Instead of just going out there and doing it,” Shivers said, “we actually learn about our bodies.”
Seals — the senior who uses Gilbert’s counting technique — said he uses the mental resilience lessons as a time to ask questions. He says it’s important to learn from experts such as Gilbert and encourages others to do the same.
His advice to younger teammates coming in: “Take your mental health seriously.”
“Nine times out of 10, your mental health is gonna hit you once you start losing a game,” Seals said. “If you learn how to control your mental health, how to stay calm in key moments, you’ll be alright.”
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Mirror Indy reporter Carley Lanich covers early childhood and K-12 education. Contact her at carley.lanich@mirrorindy.org or follow her on X @carleylanich.
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