Photo: Charles Jr. Chidi Ohaeri
For college student athletes, realizing your dream of playing at an elite level and all the pressures that come with it can take a toll. Approximately a third of collegiate athletes experience depression or anxiety, while suicide rates among National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athletes have doubled since 2002. Among NCAA athletes, male football players have been found to be at greatest risk for dying by suicide, with elite Division I players at highest risk.
Charles Jr Chidi Ohaeri, DSW ‘24, understands these dynamics well. During his undergraduate studies he was a student athlete on a football scholarship. One of his teammates took his own life. The tragic event was a turning point for Ohaeri. Looking back, he can now see there were warning signs: a young man far from home and family, struggling to maintain academic eligibility, his entire worth wrapped up in his success as a football player, and then a steady isolation from his teammates.
Ohaeri recognizes that he had advantages that many of his teammates did not. He came from a strong, supportive family system that included members who were social workers, psychologists, nurses and counselors who all valued speaking openly about mental health.
“I was one of those kids who went to college on a football scholarship but didn’t really know what they were doing,” Ohaeri said. “However, having my family system in place helped me avoid the pitfalls a lot of my teammates found themselves in. I wanted to develop a program for players who don’t already have that kind of support. But if you just tell them to go to therapy, they’re going to shut you down.”
The Doctor of Social Work (DSW) program at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work provided Ohaeri with that opportunity. Through his capstone project, he developed a psychoeducation intervention called the “I See You” Mentoring and Mental Health Program, created, in particular, to address the specific needs of young Black men as they navigate the transition from high school to college athletics.
“I See You” is a six-week education program designed to allow coaches and other athletic mentors to learn skills in how to identify warning signs for suicide, best practices for intervention, and increase regular communication to help their athletes make the most of their educational opportunities.
Tailored to the needs of Black student football players
Approximately 10% of high school student-athletes who register their intent to play football within the NCAA are Black. That number is as high as 50% of players on Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. Often, these young men are attending colleges with an overwhelmingly white student population, far from home and community support, making them susceptible to social isolation, loneliness, depression and anxiety. Few have received any kind of mentoring on how to handle the pressure and expectations placed on an eighteen-year-old entering the world of college football or told that it is okay to ask for help.
“When I started college, I saw some of my teammates were isolated or disheveled, or happy to be there but not understanding some of the mental health triggers that were going on with them,” Ohaeri said. “The school recruited a lot of African-American athletes who were big, fast and strong, but none of the coaches looked like them, there was no one who they could talk to about what was going on at home or what was going on internally, and it was taboo to talk about mental health.”
The “I See You” program focuses on connecting with potential college football athletes while they are still in high school, teaching them coping strategies and problem-solving skills so that they are better equipped to recognize and address mental health issues that may arise as they embark on their college and athletic careers. Success measures for the program include improved mental health, decreased feelings of loneliness and an increase in help-seeking behaviors.
The initial test for “I See You” was rolled out at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in San Bernardino, California, which has a 30 percent Black student population, 11 percent of whom are on the football team. Ohaeri worked closely with the coaching staff as well as a small group of transitioning Black student football players to collaboratively identify effective program components. These include one-on-one mentorship, group therapy sessions, mental health workshops, academic workshops, and safe-space mental health discussions, all culturally tailored to meet the unique needs of Black student football players.
“This program lets these young men know what types of resources are available and lets them know it’s okay to have these conversations,” says Jordan Brusig, head football coach at St. Thomas Aquinas. “If my buddy on the team went to talk to them or my coach referred me, I’m going to view that differently.”
Ohaeri says that his experience as a former student football player taught him the values of teamwork, discipline and resilience – as well as the critical need for support systems tailored to the Black athlete population that address the unique challenges that arise from the intersections of race, ethnicity and nationality. He also notes that the Black experience is more complex than a single identity, so a “one-size-fits-all” mentoring program will not work.
“Growing up, I navigated the complexities of being both Nigerian and American in the United States, only to be referred to as Black,” Ohaeri said. “My identity as a Nigerian Black American male carries with it a tapestry of cultural, social and historical threads.”
This complex interplay of factors underscores the need for a comprehensive and culturally sensitive approach to addressing the mental health and well-being of Black student football players. “I See You” acknowledges and integrates factors such as differences in upbringing, ethnic background and openness to tailor the services provided by the program to each athlete, which Ohaeri believes is vital to addressing their unique concerns effectively.
“For example, a kid from Compton going to college in the Midwest may be taking a whole lot of baggage to this new experience,” Ohaeri said. “His uncle, his brother, his cousin, his mom, are all counting on him to get the family out of their dire situation. That can take a toll on anybody.”
Educating coaches that mental health is a competitive advantage
A distinctive element of Ohaeri’s design for the “I See You” program is the focus on educating coaches on the value of preparing young athletes mentally for the transition to college athletics and being the mentors who can deliver the intervention, versus mental health professionals. For Ohaeri, it is important that the “I See You” program is viewed by both coaches and players as a way to strengthen the success of college athletes, and an integration into the team environment, rather than being branded as a mental health program.
“The coach’s job is to make sure that you’re the best player that you can be,” Ohaeri said. “My program teaches them to get the best human being they can get, so they can be a better player. Being a better human being allows you to come into the game more well-rounded in terms of what you bring and how you deal with adversity on and off the field.”
Coaches often observe changes in the behavior, attitude and performance of their players before anyone else might, Ohaeri says, but they may struggle to engage in meaningful conversations about mental health due to a lack of training or discomfort with the topic themselves. “I See You” provides coaches with the training and tools they need when they notice a decline in performance, increased stress, or withdrawal from social interactions, transforming them into effective and empathetic mentors.
“I want young men to be able to realize there’s something not right and not feel ashamed of themselves,” Ohaeri said. “To say, I know I missed a couple of tackles, but that’s not like me. What am I dealing with? Is it romance troubles, finance troubles, family troubles, or just a personal challenge like anxiety. I want them to be okay with needing some assistance from a professional the same way they need their other 10 teammates on the field.”
Ohaeri is contributing to a growing trend in an interest around how incorporating social work principles into sports can promote well-being, inclusivity and positive change for individuals, communities and society. While in the DSW program, Ohaeri was one of the students with an athletic background who provided his perspective on a new USC course launching in spring 2025, The Transforming Power of Social Work and Sports (SOWK 603).
“The “I See You” program merges my two worlds, social work and football, to allow me to really support these student athletes on and off the field and beyond their days of play,” Ohaeri said. “Because they’re human beings. If we see them as that, we get a better player and a better person.”
For more information on the “I See You” Mentoring and Mental Health Program, please contact Charles Ohaeri at ohaeri@usc.edu.
To reference the work of our faculty online, we ask that you directly quote their work where possible and attribute it to “FACULTY NAME, a professor in the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work” (LINK: https://dworakpeck.usc.edu)
This article originally appeared here.