Karen Phelps Moyer Honored with Knute Rockne Award
Karen Phelps Moyer's Foundation supports children dealing with the loss of a loved one, or family substance abuse.
Let’s meet where YOU are Destigmatize Mental Health Prevention Toolbox & Resources Community of LOVE
We support the University of Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s College and Holy Cross College by creating a safe platform to talk about mental health, implement and provide prevention tools and resources, and build a healthy space of wellness and support for all student athletes while active and for life.
The Golden Minds Mission:
Inspire Athletes to Openly Embrace Mental Health as a Priority Equal to Physical Health
Chalk Talk
Irish Football Captain Avery Davis
"There were days (after injury) I didn't want to get up...but you have to get your mental health right...and take proper steps to move forward..."
Irish Women's Basketball Guard Dara Mabrey
"I hear all the time 'what if they call me soft?' It's deeply saddening athletes hesitate to speak up. I'm here to tell athletes, you are not alone."
Perry Gregg, HCC Saints Tennis, Sophomore
“I’ve been overwhelmed this semester with school. It feels like it’s been too much to handle and I’ve had to go to my family.”
Solena Gallo, HHC Saints Soccer, Junior
“I wanted to quit. It was a very hard time for me. I turned to God. Something my mother taught me when she was going through chemo.”
Kelley Rourke, SMC Belles Softball, Freshman
“Hearing other people’s stories puts it in to perspective how real it (mental health) is...when you see professionals reaching out to athletes to make sure they are ok that’s really important because it’s not talked about enough.”
All videos created by BIG IDEA
Need Support Now?
If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, call the new national suicide and crisis number — 988 — or text HOME to 741-741 for a free, confidential conversation with a trained counselor at any time. If the mental health crisis results in a medical emergency or if there is immediate danger of harm, call 911 and explain that you need support for a mental health crisis.
Want to sign up for anonymous texting? Contact us directly.
Notre Dame Students
24/7 crisis intervention services are available 24/7 by calling the UCC at 574-631-7336.
Saint Mary’s Students
574-284-4805
574-284-4833 (fax)
[email protected]
(Email is for NON-EMERGENCY communication
Holy Cross Students
574-286-0137
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Like-minded Resources
Like-minded organizations are just a click away.
Wellness U
Wellness U is a mobile app that helps with the mental fitness & mental performance of student-athletes. Wellness U delivers personalized mental wellness resources where you can learn and practice life skills, learn coping techniques for handling stress and anxiety, measure your progress with mood journaling, and find a therapist or counselor if needed through our telehealth platform.
wellnessu.my.canva.site/wellness-u
AthMindset
Harnessing the power of your mind is key to peak performance in your sport and in life! The team at AthMindset is ready to create a customized plan for you to optimize your mental edge, so you can thrive in all aspects of your life.
athmindset.io
4D Athletes
What every parent and coach want for their athlete and how to get it.
4dathletes.com
News To Use
Daughter of Legendary Notre Dame Basketball Coach Digger Phelps Launches NIL
Golden Minds provides an online resource for athlete mental health. Current Notre Dame football player Avery Davis and women’s basketball player Dara Mabrey are actively involved. Said former Irish and NFL football player Aaron Taylor: “Golden Minds is destined to make a significant positive impact.”
There’s a Mental Health Crisis in College Sports. I Know It Firsthand.
“Increasingly, more former and current student-athletes like Harry Miller and Elijah Wade are speaking out about the intersections of mental health and their sports. Unfortunately, the recent deaths by suicide of female student-athletes — including Katie Meyer, Sarah Shulze and Lauren Bernett — have raised more urgent questions. Mostly, why? Is the pressure to perform too extreme? Is there insufficient access to mental health resources for student-athletes?”
Thomas Cole Left UCLA Football After a Suicide Attempt. He Hopes His Story Helps Others
The biggest thing that I’ve found is asking for help, it’s just being able to reach out to people closest to you,” Thomas said. “People want to help, people want to see you live, people want to see you have the best life you possibly can, and so if you can just reach out and ask them for help, like from your coaches or your teammates or like anyone at the school, it could save your life.”
Sarah Fuller’s Journey from Football Kicker to Mental Health Advocate
Another famous goalkeeper who has recently spoken out about mental illness, USWNT legend Briana Scurry, calls Fuller’s advocacy “an inspiration.” She adds: “We are not robots. We don’t just play the sport. We are people playing the sport and we have things that happen to us that we feel with our platform we can shed light on. And she understands that and she’s done a fantastic job with it.”
What the NCAA and College Athletic Departments Need to Know About Athlete Mental Health
Athletes…fear the consequences of not exemplifying mental toughness…they fear their coach and teammates will see them as weak, and lose confidence and trust in them…they are too often penalized for expressing…emotions…and judged for not having everything together.
We Need Action. Right Now.
47%
Only 47% of student-athletes feel comfortable seeking campus support.¹
½
Only half of student-athletes surveyed believe mental health is a priority to their athletic departments.¹
30%
More than 30% of student-athletes reported feeling seriously overwhelmed.¹
10%
Only 10% of college athletes experiencing mental health conditions seek help.²
¹ NCAA Well-Being Study May 2022
² University of Michigan School of Public Health
The Story of Golden Minds
“Peak Performance Starts With Strong Mental Health”
—Karen Phelps, Golden Minds
Director Karen Phelps, daughter of legendary Irish basketball coach Digger Phelps, has been around sports and the mental wellness movement her entire life. As the wife of a major league baseball pitcher for decades and the mother of six children who all played college sports, she is all too familiar with the high-pressure, intense spotlight and endless demands young people on campus endure.
For years, Karen built up her knowledge around mental health, leading her to launch her own foundation, now Eluna Network (elunanetwork.org) – a trailblazing endeavor establishing grief and addiction camps for children dealing with loss or drugs and alcohol. Her work has been honored countless times and the HBO documentary chronicling her humanitarian work with children in grief ("One Last Hug...") earned an Emmy Award.
As she continued to read about and hear about the alarming rise in rates of anxiety and depression in college sports – including the shocking tragic suicides of multiple players and the abrupt retirement of student-athletes over their mental health crisis, Phelps rolled up her sleeves to help create more solutions.
“We need to do more, and now – and we can,” says Phelps. “We created this one-stop online platform to make navigating mental health easier. There’s no reason every athlete shouldn’t put their mental wellness first because it’s everything. Any stigma about it must stop – we all need to be telling players, mental health goes hand in hand with physical health, that talking to others and seeking support is a sign of strength not weakness, and that they are surrounded by a community ready to lift them up and connect them to the right resource. We passionately believe Golden Minds can be a part of these necessary conversations.”
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Open Minds
We want to work to stop the stigma around mental wellness.
Healthy Minds
We want to constantly share with and connect student-athletes to new people, programs and resources that support their mental health.
Golden Minds
We want this to be our ultimate outcome – a mind prioritized, optimized and strengthened throughout life.
Board of Directors
Jason Holzer is a Post-Traumatic growth storyteller and the Co-Founder of 4D Athletes. His book, Amazon Best Seller “Shattered by Suicide, Renewed by Resilience: How to Move Forward After Being Left Behind” reflects on losing his father to death by suicide and is positively influencing many readers across the globe every year. Holzer plays an impactful role in the lives of student-athletes through speaking engagements coaching mental fitness training and leadership development. He is also a certified teacher, mental fitness specialist, and accomplished basketball coach.
Lisa Bonta Sumii is a psychotherapist with over 23 years of clinical experience, licensed in both California and Nevada. She has been a private practice clinician for over 15 years and also works as a consultant and an entrepreneur. Founder of AthMindset, Bonta Sumii supports student-athletes and elite athletes to achieve optimal mental health and peak mental sport performance by focusing on the athlete as a human, with multiple intersecting identities. She is also the Mental Health & Performance Coach of the Oakland Roots Soccer Club.
Michelle Olson has over 20 years of experience in the fields of Mental Health and Social Work. Olson is the Clinical Practice Manager of a Community Mental Health Facility in Berrien County, MI. This allows her to work with the many populations she has specialized in while also training and mentoring the next generation of therapists. She is a specialist in her field regarding the areas: addiction, children of addiction, trauma and, severe and persistent mental illness. In 2011, she ran the adolescent addiction program for the Community Mental Health of Elkhart County. It was also at this time that she became the Director for Camp Mariposa- Indiana (Oaklawn Psychiatric).
Teresa Godwin Phelps' passion is in education. She was on the faculty at the University of Notre Dame Law School where she taught and directed legal writing since 1980. She holds three degrees from Notre Dame, including a Ph.D. in English and one degree from Yale Law School. Professor Phelps directed the Legal Rhetoric Program and taught Legal Rhetoric at Washington College of Law and directed the legal writing program at the University of Notre Dame Law School. Her other teaching and academic interests include women and the law, and human rights, and she has published over thirty articles and three books, which have helped her earn the Grenville Clark Award in 1999, which honors voluntary activities and public service to advance the cause of peace and human rights.
Are You In?
Golden Minds is a one-of-a-kind and valiant aspiration and vision. Creating this new kind of open, responsive space is an innovative endeavor and timely, necessary work.
The scale of our impact depends on extraordinary goodness and generosity of bold big thinkers, who feel our passion and share our drive to make a mental health difference for young student-athletes.
If you want to be a Golden Minds marketing partner, Golden Minds donor or philanthropist, Golden Minds foundation grantor, or any other Golden Minds investor, we’ve got an idea and way to make your support meaningful.
Get in Touch