Athletes, Mental Health, & Building Community at Canterbury

Last week, Canterbury’s Varsity captains and coaches met with the Active Minds Club and the Community Culture Empowerment (CCE) leadership council to make a plan—not to win a match, but to build a stronger community through athletics and shine a light on the importance of players’ mental health. 

Sports are an important part of life on the hilltop. But while being on a team can promote important skills, meaningful relationships, and other lasting benefits, student-athletes also face unique mental health challenges that can have ripple effects across campus.

“As athletes, our self-worth can often get tied to our performance and how well we play,” says Zachary Mwanza ’27. Zachary, a Varsity Squash player and member of both Active Minds and the CCE, helped organize the event. “But we’re not just machines designed to score points or stop shots. Thinking that way puts a lot of stress on athletes and limits how we can show up for one another as a community.”

Through a series of roundtable talks in Ragland Commons, club facilitators encouraged captains and coaches to think about how they approach mental health on their teams, what might hold them back from broaching the topic to begin with, and how making mental wellness a priority could have a positive impact on the Canterbury community as a whole. Conversations were lively, thoughtful, and sincere; many participants found themselves wishing for more time to explore these topics. 

“I am impressed with not only our facilitators' ability to lead these discussions, but our athletes’ willingness to open up and be vulnerable about team culture and mental health,” says Dr. Emily Allen, the CCE’s faculty advisor.

Organizers believe that these conversations are an important first step in what they hope will be an ongoing dialogue at Canterbury. The event was so successful that plans are already underway to hold additional sessions with Winter teams and to launch a similar initiative for Spring sports and J.V. teams. 

“We opened a space for vulnerability,” says Sara Anderson ’27, a leader on the Wrestling team and the CCE. “I think doing that made people feel more comfortable with the topic and consider how they can create a similar space on teams. They recognize what a great community we already have, and they want to make it even better. That gives me a lot of hope.”