“[Mental health] for athletes is such an important thing, but it’s also a very silent battle.”

Varsity Lacrosse player Gretchen Garrard expresses how Lacrosse is a contributor to improving her mental health, but getting to this point from middle school to junior year wasn’t easy.

“Middle school was really rough for me,” Garrard said. “I did not have a lot of friends and I really struggled with my mental health… having a community around you is such an important factor.”

That lack of connection followed her into the start of high school. “I was scared I was not going to have friends or a community or someone to support me,” she said. But that fear began to shift in an unexpected place, an English classroom conversation about lacrosse.

“I just went and from there I just met people,” Garrard said. “Started going every week to these practices, went to tryouts, joined the team, and I just found my community through lacrosse.”

What started as a step outside her comfort zone quickly became something deeper. “Through lacrosse, I found people like minded”. “You really just find your family through a sport because you are growing up with them from freshman year to senior year.”

Still, her journey was not perfect. The isolation of Covid brought challenges back to the surface. “Covid was really hard for me. I struggled with making friends cause I was really conscious of myself and how I acted,” she said.

But being part of a team gave her something steady. “It really improved my mental health because I am just surrounded by people who just want to see me grow.”

Now Garrard is focused on something bigger than herself, changing how athletes talk about mental health.

“Mental health is definitely a silent battle,” she said. “It is something that everyone struggles with. You are always gonna have moments in your life where you have lows and highs.”

She believes one of the biggest problems is how often people hide it. “It is a really silent thing, something that a lot of people cover up because it is so stigmatized.”

For Garrard, breaking that stigma starts with honesty. “I think it is so important for people to talk about their feelings… and for athletes to talk about their mental health.”

She also understands how deeply performance can shape confidence. “Performance has so much effect on your mental health and your worth as a person, specifically how you think you played.”

That is why she is pushing for change within sports culture. “It is so important for athletes to have access to counselors when they need to talk to them, and feel like they are comfortable talking to their coach about their problems too.”

Garrard’s story is not just about lacrosse. It is about finding strength in being open and using that openness to help others.