THE ATHLETE CONFIDENTIAL
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SHARE YOUR STORY SERIES: LIFE AFTER SPORT & FINDING FREEDOM IN RETIREMENT MY NAME IS WILL BUSH & THIS IS MY STORY DI Track & Field | TAC Ambassador  Sometimes you don’t have control over your last game, your last race, the last rep, the last drill, or the last shot of your collegiate career. It just sneaks up on you and then boom it’s over. For me, I had full control and expectation. I knew when the all too literal finish line was coming, eight years of running, just finishe

SHARE YOUR STORY SERIES: How Breaking Down Helped Me Finally Break Through MY NAME IS aspen garrison & THIS IS MY STORY DII Basketball Player | TAC Ambassador  For as long as I can remember, I believed success meant one thing: pushing myself past my limits. Grinding harder. Ignoring the pain. Tuning out the noise. Winning at any cost. That mindset fueled me as an athlete. It made me a successful player for a while but eventually became my biggest downfall as an athlete and a

SHARE YOUR STORY SERIES: Invisible struggles & rebuilding with purpose MY NAME IS Kelsey O’Connor & THIS IS MY STORY DI Softball Player | TAC Ambassador  I started playing softball at seven years old, and very quickly it became completely connected to who I was. As I grew and deepened my love for the sport, I dreamed of playing in college and committed to that dream early. I would wake up at 4 a.m. to train before school, spend weekends traveling the country for tournaments,

SHARE YOUR STORY SERIES: WORKING THROUGH INJURY AND MAKING HARD DECISIONS MY NAME IS Makenna Chokelal & THIS IS MY STORY DI Hockey Player | TAC Ambassador  To me, my freshman year of university as a D1 athlete felt like a series of unfortunate events. It began with moving away from home for the first time, jumping headfirst into university after finishing my senior year online, and taking a sabbatical year where I only took three courses in the spring of 2021. On top of that,

I always thought basketball would be everything. That was the goal. The identity. The plan. But life had other ideas. There was a moment I'll never forget when I realized I couldn’t play anymore. I couldn’t bounce a ball, couldn’t suit up, couldn’t compete like I used to. And just like that, everything I thought defined me… vanished. It hit hard. Being an athlete was more than just a schedule or a title it was how I measured my worth. Without it, I felt lost. Disconnected. No

SHARE YOUR STORY SERIES: A journey through three knee surgeries, KNOWING WHEN TO LEAN ON OTHERS, AND COMING BACK STRONGER MY NAME IS RUBY MAY & THIS IS MY STORY DII Soccer Player | Western Washington University | TAC Ambassador  The First Tear: Facing the Unknown In April of 2023, during the end of my junior year of high school, I tore my ACL. It was terrifying news that came with a lot of change and unknowns. I was devastated. Not just unknowns within my ACL recovery process

Not just for athletes, but for the humans behind the game. As athletes, we’re trained to be tough. To push through. To keep going no matter what.But somewhere along the way, the mental side gets left behind, or worse, buried under pressure, expectations, and silence.These are 5 things I wish more athletes (and younger me) knew about mental health in sport.   1. Your worth isn’t tied to performance. You are more than your stats, your minutes, your wins, or your selections. You

Share Your Story Series: Navigating life after sport and the uncertainty that comes with life’s transitions. MY NAME IS EMMA KRAMER & THIS IS MY STORY DII Basketball | Simon Fraser University | TAC Ambassador For most of my life, my identity was inseparable from sports. In my early years, it was soccer. Then it became soccer and basketball. Eventually, when the time came to choose one to pursue more seriously, basketball became my anchor — the thing that shaped my days, my go

SHARE YOUR STORY SERIES: The cutthroat world of Division I athletics, the depth of a coaches influence on an experience, the journey to self-advocacy, & redefining identity beyond sport "You are not your stats. You are not your scholarship. You are not weak for needing help. You are not a quitter for walking away from what’s breaking you." MY NAME IS BROOKLYN JAMES & THIS IS MY STORY NCAA Division I Soccer and Track & Field | University of Oklahoma Being a Division I athlete

SHARE YOUR STORY SERIES: The pressure of athletic perfectionism, identity crisis, resilience through reinvention, & redefining success...

SHARE YOUR STORY SERIES: When things aren't always as they seem, and your routine feels like a fight for your life, and the big impact...

Share Your Story Series: Keeping a grip on reality, changing perspective, and prioritizing yourself– getting the help and taking the time...

Share your story series: Braving and navigating the ‘post grad experience’, drowning in job applications, and my biggest lesson through...

Share Your Story Series: Supporting yourself, supporting your coaches, & transitioning from student athlete to just student My name is...

Share your story series: Discovering oneself outside of sport, learning emotions are okay MY NAME IS TORUN MCGILLIS & THIS IS MY STORY DI...

Share your story series: Rolling with the punches, having to adapt, then adapt again… and the reward of unwavering resilience. “Sometimes...

Share your story series: Appreciating the grind & rediscovering your ‘why’ “It wasn’t just about the medals or the times but about the...

Share your story series: Unseen symptoms, learning to slow down to move forward, & building a support system “You can still be all you...

Share your story series: Defining the future, getting vulnerable, & building a community. Dealing with a setback is hard enough, finding...

Share your story series: Unexplained illness, tested faith, & new found gratitude Life is full of curveballs. The lesson behind them is...