Key Takeaways
The Eric Monday Foundation has trained 5,000 coaches across Virginia and 15 other states, with mandatory adoption in Fairfax County Public Schools.
CDC data shows 11% of children ages 3-17 were diagnosed with anxiety and 4% with depression in the 2022-23 school year.
Coach training programs use structured frameworks like LASRR (Listen, Accept, Support, Refer, Report) rather than positioning coaches as clinicians.
SHAPE America’s health.moves.minds. program, launched in 2019 with Booster, ties school fundraising to wellness curricula.
Athletic directors are now factoring mental health competency into hiring criteria, reshaping role expectations for coaches.
A formal training layer enters the coaching pipeline
The Eric Monday Foundation, named after a wrestler who died in 2009 at age 21 while suffering from depression, runs free online mental health training for coaches, athletic directors, and parents. Brian Monday, the foundation’s president and Eric’s father, built the program after watching his son’s mixed experiences with supportive and dismissive coaches.
As of December, 5,000 coaches across 16 states had completed the curriculum. Fairfax County Public Schools now requires it for all middle and high school coaches. The training is built around the LASRR framework: Listen, Accept, Support, Refer, Report. It explicitly does not position coaches as mental health professionals.
The market context driving demand
CDC data shows 11% of children ages 3-17 were diagnosed with anxiety and 4% with depression in the 2022-23 school year. A 2024 Johns Hopkins Medicine article noted that while youth sports can deliver mental health benefits, they can also intensify anxiety when athletes equate self-worth with performance.
The National Federation of State High School Associations published a February post warning that early sport specialization correlates with burnout, injury, mood issues, anxiety, and lower self-esteem. Together, these data points have pushed mental health from a peripheral concern into an operational consideration for programs.
Multiple organizations expand the infrastructure
Morgan’s Message, a Virginia-based nonprofit, runs a student athlete ambassador program where high school and college athletes lead mental health awareness on their campuses.
SHAPE America launched the health.moves.minds. program in 2019 alongside Booster, an education fundraising solutions company. The program ties school fundraising to physical, social, emotional, and mental wellness curricula. SHAPE CEO Stephanie Morris said the goal is to integrate mental health into physical education at the curriculum level rather than treat it as a standalone topic.
Hiring and program design implications
Andrew Baird, director of student activities at James Madison High School in Fairfax County, said mental health competency now factors into his coaching hire criteria. He looks for coaches who treat athlete development holistically.
Lio Quezada, head wrestling coach at Fairfax High School, gathers his athletes after practices and reads excerpts from books with themes about mental wellness. Catherine Leighty, varsity assistant lacrosse coach at Yorktown High School in Arlington, Virginia, adjusts her coaching style to individual athletes and pairs criticism with positive reinforcement. Both took training through the Eric Monday Foundation.
What this signals for the broader youth sports market
Coach mental health training is shifting from a nice-to-have into a structured operational layer. For club operators, leagues, and facility-based programs outside the K-12 system, pressure to adopt similar standards will likely intensify as parents increasingly evaluate programs on holistic athlete development, not just wins.
Vendors offering training, certifications, and curricula stand to benefit. Operators who formalize their approach early will gain a recruiting and retention advantage in a market where roughly one in eight children carries an anxiety or depression diagnosis.
Source: K-12 Dive (via Yahoo Sports), Kara Arundel, April 24, 2026, https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/school-coaches-prioritizing-mental-health-050000337.html
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