USF Athletics

Bulls Spread the Word About Mental Health at Annual Conference Event

April 17, 2018

By TOM ZEBOLD
USF Senior Writer

TAMPA, APRIL 17, 2018 – The American Athletic Conference has a goal of creating the best student-athlete experience possible and USF Athletics provided plenty of valuable input to members of the league earlier this month.

Dr. Lee Dorpfeld, the Bulls' Behavioral Health Coordinator, and four USF student-athletes all continued to bring the conference's mental health awareness initiative to the forefront during the American Athletic Conference Academic Consortium on April 7 in Orlando.

Dorpfeld was joined at the two-day event on the UCF campus by USF Student-Athlete Advisory Committee co-presidents Ashley Wilson (track and field) and Cameron Ruff (football), along with Madeleine Barrow (women's golf) and Gabriel Menescal (men's soccer).

"We had four student-athletes go speak to other student-athletes, administrators and faculty athletic representatives from our member schools on how we work to destigmatize mental health," Dorpfeld said.

• Wilson detailed everything USF Athletics did to raise awareness for The American's mental health initiative in October, from handing out #Pow6rfulMinds wristbands on campus, to student-athletes producing a mental health awareness video that aired on videoboards during Bulls' athletic competition throughout the month. Learn more HERE.
• Barrow, a native of England, spoke from the international student-athlete perspective of mental health and how USF Athletics has important resources international talent might not get back home.
• Menescal talked about the male student-athlete perspective of mental health and why it's important to seek help.
• Ruff drove home the point of there being a real need for mental health support throughout college athletics.

"They spoke beautifully and engaged the audience for 1 hour, 15 minutes," Dorpfeld said. "There was interaction between our student-athletes and student-athletes from other schools. I invited them to speak and they came up with their own topics on things that were important to them."

On top of those Bulls speaking, former USF track and field standout Giscard Petion spoke highly of USF Athletics regarding its mental health support system, which was the first full-time program established in the conference more than three years ago. Petion is now a master's student in UCF's mental health counseling program.

"Initially, USF Athletics was the first program in the conference offering in-house mental health support," Dorpfeld said. "Temple became the second to jump onboard with the mental health initiative full-time in December and the Owls are currently building out their program."

Mental health was one of the many important areas covered during The American's Academic Consortium, which has a core focus of establishing research and formulation of programming relative to student well-being with the particular emphasis on issues surrounding college athletics. Other topics covered this year included mental and physical impacts research, concussion and injuries research, wellness and community research and academic support.

Student-athlete panel discussions covered overall well-being, body image issues and numerous other topics pertinent to athletics.
 
About USF Athletics
USF Athletics sponsors 19 varsity men's and women's teams that compete in 11 different sports, 18 at the NCAA Division I level in the American Athletic Conference. The Bulls' athletic program celebrated its 50^th anniversary in 2015, having begun with a men's soccer contest in 1965. Nearly 500 student-athletes train and compete in the athletic district located on the east end of the campus in Tampa, Fla. The Bulls have claimed 12 American Athletic Conference team titles since joining the conference in 2013, including four in 2016-17, and own 109 conference championships overall. Ten USF programs reached national post-season competition in the 2016-17 season and nine were ranked in the Top 25 nationally. The Bulls posted a program-record 86 percent Graduation Success Rate (2016) in the last reporting, logged an annual department grade-point average over a 3.0 for the second straight year and saw 106 student-athletes earn their degree during the 2016-17 academic period.