Coach Brian Hess on Maintaining Team Morale and Mental Health During Crisis

Mental health is just as important as physical; Kids in tough situation at home look to sports as a form of escape. Coach Hess discusses on how he helps keep them busy during tough times.

When you ask a kid what's the first thing they will do when they receive their first check from their professional sporting job, 99% of them say "take care of my family." On social media, you see the first-year rookie gifting their parent's homes and cars, returning the favor and sacrifices they made for them to reach their ultimate goals. Sadly, most of those kids come from low-income families.

When COVID-19 hit, immediately, I began to question what happens to the kids who rely on school for not only pursuing their dreams but a place to live. There are many unfortunate stories about children having to live with coaches because of unstable homes or even worse, committing suicide. Watching your parents extend themselves for the family can be emotionally and mentally heartbreaking. During COVID-19, many parents lost their jobs, and in turn, are having a hard time keeping afloat.

One has to wonder how kids in those situations are handling it. During his presser, Strength and Conditioning coach, Brian Hess, went into detail on making sure his kids were mentally healthy and keeping the team functioning as one.

"I think having the structure has been huge. My staff talked about it and, when we set up that first training session, we knew we were gonna go all out… When we start a training session, we'll all just walk into the middle of the room, there's always a clock, and I'll just stare at it waiting for it to click over to 3 o'clock, and then I just start hammering the whistle and yelling, 'grit it up.' As we get closer and there's one minute left, the guys start jockeying for space and getting geared up. We ran it just like a normal session and I think, when we pulled out the whistle and started going on a ZOOM chat training session, I think just to get back in that routine and have that piece of their life back was a huge help to them. And then, again, we're doing those check-ins where we send them out a questionnaire each week, and we ask for that, ask for things that they need, and you get a good feel for that. But I think just giving them back their training and still going in the direction of their big goals as far as having a great season and going to the next level; I think that's been a huge help."