May is Mental Health Awareness Month and we’re highlighting a new tool that student athletes are trying out to help maintain their physical and mental toughness in competition.

For Boston English High School basketball player Nisaiah Nieves, the sport is an escape.

“Once you get in the gym, nothing else matters,” he said.

For Nieves and his teammate Janeuey Brea, playing the sport is more than just a way to stay in shape. It’s an opportunity to achieve goals, make connections and develop leadership skills.

“We tried to talk to each other as much as we can, stay connected. Because at the end of the day, we all had the same goal, the same end goal. We always wanted to win,” Brea said.

And they did — advancing well into the playoffs despite having a brand-new team with players who didn’t speak the same language. They credit a bit of their success this year to a focus on their mental game.

“The mental is like 90% of the game. It’s like 10% physical,” Nieves said.

This past fall, through a partnership with Let’s Play Boston, they met with former NBA Rookie of the Year Michael Carter-Williams, a Massachusetts native, to learn about a new startup, NDUR. Pronounced “endure,” its app provides a unique platform for student athletes to chat with each other on issues and pressures they face.

Carter-Williams has been vocal about his mental health struggles in the league and is a co-founder of NDUR.

The first game for the season was called off when a bus never showed up to take the East Boston High School boys’ basketball team to Fall River.

“Just by, you know, speaking to them about my own issues, it kind of had let them open up about their own issues and it really was impactful,” he said.

NDUR’s president, Darren Orr, has worked with hockey players as an agent most of his career. His father is the legendary Boston Bruin Bobby Orr.

“He had some amazing skills,” said Orr of his father, “and he had a supportive family and all those things that are really important. But he had no one to turn to … to talk about that mental barrier he was running into.”

Orr said NDUR aims to be a free starting point for athletes, meeting them where they’re already at — their phones.

“You can’t always fix every single issue that’s out there. But what we try to do is tamp down those embers before they become a forest fire,” he said.

Through his Marked as Winners foundation, Baltimore Ravens safety Marcus Williams is empowering young people to overcome challenges and achieve their full potential through education and mental wellness.

The young players tell us they’ve taken strategies learned on the app, from others’ first-hand experience, to the court and the classroom.

“Other people like sharing their point of views on their mental state. Like, for example, like an injury, they’re sharing how that affected them. And you can, like, build off of that and either help the person or you can use that information to help yourself as well,” Nieves said.

“Breathing was a big part of, like, processing everything that was going on during the season because there was a lot of stuff we went through and breathing really helped,” Brea said.

NDUR founders plan to incorporate more advice from pro- and collegiate-level athletes on the app to keep the conversation going. The city of Boston is on board hoping this partnership will change the game around mental health.

“The more that we normalize it, the more that people can ask for help and get the help that they need,” said Tyrik Wilson, Boston’s Youth Sports Initiative manager.

“If you make a bad play or you have a bad practice, like, it’s not the end of the world,” explained Brea. “We got each other because this is like a family. It’s brotherhood. So we all hold each other down.”

Shaquille O’Neal is hoping his kids will take a shot at something different.

The basketball legend, who is dad to Taahirah, 28—whom he shares with former girlfriend Arnetta Yardbourgh—and Myles, 28, Shareef, 25, Amirah, 23, Shaqir, 22, and Me’arah, 19, whom he shares with ex-wife Shaunie Henderson, recently revealed that he has always told his children, “We don’t need another basketball player. At all.”

“So if you want to play basketball, cool, but please go to law school,” he said on the May 23 episode of Today. “Please go to medical school. Please be an engineer. Please be an AI inventor. Just do something else.”

Shaquille added, “So I give them freedom to be who they are. I never press them.”

The 53-year-old explained that his adult children will only benefit from his success if they choose to work hard themselves. 

“In order to touch daddy’s cheese,” he joked, “you got to show me two or three degrees.”

As a lifelong resident of Southwest Florida and former student-athlete at North Fort Myers High School, I’ve seen many of the hardships my friends, teammates and even I went through as a youth.

Many of us came from disadvantaged backgrounds, causing issues at home and a lack of adequate food, clothing and shelter. Others struggled at school, with poor grades, problems “fitting in,” and so on. For many of us, sports became a way of finding structure, a place to get away from the struggles and negativity in favor of teamwork and camaraderie.

Sports also taught us life lessons about good sportsmanship – leadership that will last a lifetime – and helped with how to recognize and conquer the obstacles that young people in our community often face, preventing them from reaching their fullest potential.

That’s why my wife Katie and I started the Tommy Bohanon Foundation eight years ago. We saw the need to empower the youth in our community and foster positive change, with sports as the vehicle.

Our first foray supporting student-athletes was a youth football camp, which continues to be our most well-attended program. Over 250 local student-athletes come to North Fort Myers High School one Saturday in June for hands-on training in the game from experienced coaches.

Even more important are the life lessons we share with the kids to help them grow into amazing young men and women.

We know the game of football will bring the youth plenty of fun and excitement, but sports alone will take them only so far. Our work at the foundation continues with education, mentorship and community engagement for the student-athletes.

We strive to break barriers, unlock potential and inspire future leaders. We believe in providing opportunities that inspire growth, resilience and a brighter future for the children of our community.

A short time after the first camp ended as a big success, Katie and I realized the need in the community went much deeper. We knew we could do more to support the youth and with that the Tommy Bohanon Foundation was born.

What was once a one-day youth football camp has now become an organization that has raised over $1 million for academic scholarships, sports equipment grants to local high schools, youth football camps, seminars and as a benefactor to other local nonprofits.

Katie and I couldn’t be happier about the success we have had with the foundation and the impact it has had on more than 12,000 youth in Southwest Florida. Now, as parents, we know even more why the camp and foundation are important to many young athletes and their families.

With the support of people like you, we will continue to make a positive impact and enhance the lives of the next generation.

— Tommy Bohanon is the president of the Tommy Bohanon Foundation. He is the Managing Director and a Financial Advisor with Baystate Financial in Bonita Springs. He spent seven seasons in the NFL as a fullback and special teamer.

Can You Believe It?

The uptick in abuse against umpires and referees in youth sports, including Little League baseball, continues to have a dramatic impact.  There is a nationwide umpire shortage. Many umpires retired during the pandemic, but others have just had enough.  

“It is extremely sad to see because it takes away from the game. It is something children should not have to see. And it sometimes makes the kids emulate their parents’ aggressive action on the playing fields,’’ said Horton Webb, a retired 20-year veteran of youth sports from Waynesburg, Pa. “It is just not safe to be an umpire or referee in any youth sport right now,’’ said Webb, who suffered a broken jaw last summer from an irate parent before quitting. 

Since  2017, the number of baseball and softball umpires in the Babe Ruth youth baseball and softball league has been in decline – with 6,229 in 2017 falling to 4,995, according to the National Umpire Association. Between 2018 and 2022, youth sports lost nearly 20,000 umpires at the high school level, according to the National Federation  of State High School Associations.  

 Videos of parents and coaches verbally and physically assaulting umpires have gone viral. In one Little League game in Alabama, a coach is seen grabbing an umpire and throwing him to the ground, with children looking on in disbelief. 

Another video shows Texas parents aggressively yelling at an umpire, who ended the game early over the disruption.  And a recent survey of youth sport officials by the National Federation of State High School Association, found that 59 percent of umpires and referees don’t feel respected by parents and spectators.  During a recent youth baseball game in Lakewood, Colorado, parents disagreed with an umpire’s call and stormed the field. Parents and spectators starting punching each other as 7-year-old players looked on.   The association also predicts that 82 percent of current umpires will retire or quit because of  unsafe working conditions. 

Tim White of Taunton, Mass., said parents threatened to beat him up in a parking lot after a Little League game.  “It is simply out of control,’’ he said. The parents disliked his home plate call. 

“These acts of violence should not surprise us,’’ said Paula Calabrese, a Pittsburgh-based  consultant.  “People are angry; it’s life on high volume,’’ she said.  “We need to communicate acceptable standards of behavior and be responsible for our actions,’’ said Calabrese.  

Already a handful of states, including Florida, Delaware, Hawaii, Georgia, California and Illinois, have established laws to protect umpires.  And Little League Baseball and Softball updated the Child Protection Program prior to the 2022 season, which includes an added section on bullying and emotional wellness. The policy was updated to provide guidance to leagues on how to prevent bullying in their program while promoting emotional wellness for players. Little League has zero tolerance for the following behaviors: physical bullying, verbal bullying,  emotional bullying, social and cyber bullying, harassment, and hazing.  

Any individual that engages in any of the above behaviors or commits violence should be prohibited from participating in Little League.  This includes player-to-player, player-to-adult, adult-to-player and adult-to-adult interactions. And if a situation occurs at a Little League event, including practices  and games, both parties  should be removed from the games until the issues are resolved, according to the Little League Child Protection program..  

Kelly Cooke said Little League baseball has been an excellent experience for her 11-year-old son, Malachi. “He is learning leadership skills and self-discipline,” said Cooke, whose son often plays pitcher and catcher with the Squirrel Hill Little League team in Pittsburgh, Pa.  

“We are a closely knit group with no tolerance for violence,’’ Cooke said. “Kids will be benched if they do not follow good sportsmanship rules,” she said.  

With two  million active players annually, Little League baseball is the largest youth sports organization in the world.  There are more than 200,000 Little League teams nationwide.  

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DENVER, Colo. (KKTV) – Sports can open so many doors for kids, but not everyone gets the chance to play them.

Between the equipment, uniforms and other expenses, it can be hard for low-income families to get their kids involved in baseball and softball.

The Colorado Rockies are working to change this by funding baseball and softball leagues so kids from these families can experience what it’s like to play these sports.

“We do over 19 camps and clinics all around the state just trying to get youth involved in baseball and softball,” said Jim Kellogg, vice president of community and retail operations for the Colorado Rockies.

Kellogg continues saying, “Baseball can teach so many life lessons.

“Really a lot of the life lessons about being a good teammate, a good person, lifting someone up that’s down, all the messages that we all learn in life we use that and make that towards baseball and our players because of their platform the kids will listen and respond to them.”

Explaining how the Rockies raise money for underprivileged youth, Kellogg tells 11 News, “The two camps that we use as fundraisers for our foundation they’re here at Coors Field.

“The funds that are raised from that go to our foundation which supports our RBI program, which is through Denver public schools, Aurora public schools.

“So we fund a baseball and softball league for kids over the course of the summertime.”

As far as the lesson they try to get across to kids who take part in these camps and leagues, Kellogg tells 11 News, “The kids learn that baseball is a fun sport, it’s a hard sport, life can be hard at times, so we try to send them messages that just incorporate this into your everyday life.

“We all have teammates, so we teach them about taking care of their teammates, being a good teammate and we just try to instill the lessons of life through baseball to these kids.

“And they like to respond to it and it’s fun. They just have a blast out here playing.

“We understand we have a philanthropic responsibility as a professional sports organization to give back to the community as do the other ones and they do a great job of it too.

“Baseball in particular we want to grow young fans and we want them to have the experience.

“We know that if you play baseball or softball as a child, or in elementary school, or in high school, or in college if you can, you’re most likely going to become a baseball fan and you’re going to come out here and love the environment that we have here to watch the best of the best play the game and if you’ve played it yourself as a child, you remember what it feels like to be part of that.

“And you know what we’re proud to be Colorado Rockies, we’re proud to represent the state and we want to serve the community.”

Catcher for the Colorado Rockies Jacob Stallings also tells 11 News how important it is for kids to have the opportunity to play this sport.

“It really can change a kid’s life forever, (it) changed mine forever when I was a kid,” said Stallings.

Stallings also mentions he loves giving back to kids in the community saying, “I think that’s one of the most fun parts of the job for me is just anytime I see a kid in the stands, or you know out and about, giving (them) an autograph or just throwing them a ball or something, I know how much that meant to me when I was a kid when I got to experience that.

“You know we’re lucky, we’re extremely fortunate to be in the position that we’re in to have gotten to play baseball and make enough money to where we can you know help those in need and I think it’s really important.

“You know the team means so much to the community, all the Denver teams do and so anything that us as players, we can do to give back.

“They come out and give us so much support at the ball games, (so) anything we can do to give back to them, we’d love to do it.

“It’s a responsibility to act the right way and play the right way and try to be good examples for those kids.”

Furthermore, Stallings’ advice for kids as he tells 11 News is, “Have fun doing whatever you’re doing, chase your dreams because you know I certainly never thought I’d be a Major League Baseball player so you really never know what could happen if you work hard.

“Just chase what you love and treat others the right way, don’t put limits on yourself. Don’t let other people put limits on you because you really never know what could happen.”

If you would like to register for the Rockies’ baseball/softball camps and clinics, or if you want to make a donation to the team’s foundation click here.

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