Universities focus on athletes' mental health after crises

Police awoke Indiana State athletic director Sherard Clinksdale early on Aug. 21 with tragic news. Two of the university’s football players, and another student, had died in a car accident.

Clinksdale immediately began devising a plan to console and support the teammates and friends of the deceased teenagers.

“There is no playbook for something like this,” Clinksdale said.

But those who have experienced the unexpected death of a college athlete under their supervision say the increased emphasis on mental health care in athletic departments and universities at large — spurred in part by the pandemic and lessons learned from other tragedies — helps when responding to a crisis.

Grief struck the University of Virginia earlier this week. Three members of the football team were shot and killed on a bus returning to the Charlottesville campus from Washington. Two other students, one of them also a football player, were wounded.

The suspect in police custody, Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., 22, is a Virginia student and former walk-on member of the football team.

Classes, academic activities and the university's Saturday home game against Coastal Carolina were canceled, and the school made counselors and therapy dogs available. Temporary memorials with flowers and stuffed animals have sprung up on campus throughout the week, including at Scott Stadium, where the Cavaliers football team plays. Classes resumed Wednesday though the university said undergraduate students won't have to complete any graded assignments or take exams before the Thanksgiving break.

Virginia athletic director Carla Williams said Tuesday the department has three psychologists available for grieving teammates.

“In our first meeting with the student athletes, we had a lot of counselors on hand that were...