New Lenox student starts mental health awareness club for her school’s athletes

After Kailee O’Sullivan broke her finger, she couldn’t even watch videos of softball games without crying.

“That was my life,” said O’Sullivan, 16, a junior at Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox. “It was all just taken away from me so fast.”

O’Sullivan, a pitcher and utility player for the Celtics, eventually returned to the game she’s loved since her T-ball days. But she had to leave her other sport, volleyball, behind.

This fall, O’Sullivan with the help of Jeremiah Jobe, a football coach, social worker and Providence alumnus, helped Providence Catholic became a high school campus for Morgan’s Message.

According to its website, Morgan’s Message is a nonprofit that provides “resources and expertise to confront student-athlete mental health, build a community by and for athletes, facilitate safe peer-to-peer conversations and provide a platform for advocacy.” The Virginia-based organization began after former Duke University lacrosse player Morgan Rodgers took her own life at age 22 in 2019.

The new club at Providence has met monthly since the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year, said Jobe, who started working at Providence this fall.

Jobe said the concept of a mental health awareness club immediately interested him from a social work and football coach perspective.

“People see the successes and all the great things, but people don’t see the dark moments when we go through an injury or anxiety before a match or burnout of a sport,” Jobe said. “We’re able to give kids that avenue and a vehicle to talk about these things.”

O’Sullivan said her injury happened her freshman year. She said when she “dove out” for a throw, the ball shattered her finger before she hit the ground. O’Sullivan said she had tendon issues and nerve damage. She required three surgeries to repair the finger.

She recalled the feeling of defeat at wondering, “How am I ever going to pitch again?”

She did. But then last year, a student athlete at Providence died by suicide, resulting in “the loudest silence ever heard in the hallway, the most depressing day ever,” O’Sullivan said.

O’Sullivan said the death occurred about five months after her own recovery, “which was really hard.”

“Mental health was not something our school talked about too much,” O’Sullivan said.

But then O’Sullivan’s mother learned about Morgan’s Message. O’Sullivan made up her mind.

“I knew so many people that were going through stuff,” O’Sullivan said. “I needed to make a change, to do something.”

Jobe said he attends the monthly, hour-long meetings, but O’Sullivan runs them. Topics change each month but are geared toward student athletes. They’ve discussed anxiety, athlete burnout and student injuries. The goal is to normalize conversation about mental health and decrease the stigma surrounding it, Jobe said.

Attendance ranges from a few students to 25.

“We educate and we talk, and we share our experiences,” Jobe said. “We share our struggles. We share our journeys.”

Jobe said he “chimes in” from time to time, even sharing his own story of anxiety and depression. Jobe was a freshman at Providence when he fractured his knee and that “took me to a dark place,” he said.

So Jobe transferred out of Providence but returned four weeks later, he said. He wound up sitting out the year because of the Illinois High School Association transfer rule, he said.

“I didn’t really understand what was going on with me – why I felt so connected to my sport and why I felt I was nothing without my sport,” Jobe said. “It took me a while to realize my impact on life had nothing to do with my sport accolades but who I am as a person. … I felt valued being an athlete, not as a human being.”

‘Everyone struggles with something’

Do today’s student athletes struggle with mental health issues more than in the past? That’s a Catch-22, he said.

Jobe said student athletes feel more pressure to succeed since social media steeps them in the successes of others and makes them wonder, “I see this guy and this gal getting offers. How come this isn’t happening to me?”

But Jobe also feels the present time has more opportunity and platforms for honest discussions. People are less intimated about transparency. He hopes the club eventually will expand to include all students because “everyone struggles with something,” he said.

O’Sullivan said even students who aren’t struggling mentally should still attend. Maybe their friends might be struggling, she said.

“You can learn how to help them,” O’Sullivan said.

Although students of all genders, athletes and non-athletes, can benefit from the club, O’Sullivan feels boys especially need the support.

“They can’t cry. They can’t have emotions,” O’Sullivan said. “A lot of people come to school and put this fake face on. When they’re struggling, no one call tell. They don’t talk about it.”

O’Sullivan said she’s received messages from other students thanking her for the club and sharing how it has helped them, even though they initially felt nervous about attending.

“It just made them feel more at peace,” O’Sullivan said.

O’Sullivan said she now has a better understanding of the phrase, “Everything happens for a reason.”

“Sometimes God puts you through these struggles to build your character and make you stronger,” O’Sullivan said.

O’Sullivan encouraged people to reach out for people so “you don’t have to be alone.” She wants people to “look out for everyone you meet.”

“Because you never know what someone is going through,” O’Sullivan said.