SPORTS E3 USA TODAY ❚ FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 2020 ❚ 5C
The task force also will advise USOPC
staff who have regular contact with ath-
letes.
“We don’t want to re-create the
wheel. If (the outside experts) have
been doing things that are working real-
ly well, we want to tap into them and use
it for Team USA,” said Amber Donald-
son, senior director of sports medicine
clinics for the USOPC.
“We wanted to make sure we had ath-
letes and coaches and (national govern-
ing body) representation to make sure
we have a finger on the pulse of what the
real concerns are for the athletes, and
use the experts to really bring their in-
stitutional knowledge to us.”
In a whistle-blower lawsuit filed in
February by William Moreau, the former
vice president of sports performance
accused the USOPC of “not following
the standards of care related to the
management of suicidal athletes” and
said the organization lacked the “appro-
priate internal resources” to deal with
mental health issues.
The USOPC denied Moreau’s allega-
tions, but they echo complaints made
by athletes – including Michael Phelps.
They have said that the USOPC only
cared about mental health if it affected
someone’s performance and said ath-
letes who wanted to come forward
would not for fear it might jeopardize
their selection for future teams.
“I don’t need a sports psychologist,”
Schmitt said. “I need someone in the
mental health field who works with ev-
eryday things.”
Donaldson and Karen Cogan, a sen-
ior sports psychologist, said the USOPC
has had those resources available. Co-
gan pointed out, for example, that she
and the USOPC’s other six full-time
sports psychologists are all licensed or
license-eligible psychologists. The
USOPC also maintains a list of private
clinicians throughout the country so
athletes can be directed to someone lo-
cal.
But Donaldson and Cogan acknowl-
edged that the USOPC hasn’t done a
good enough job of publicizing the re-
sources that are available. Or in making
it clear there will be no retribution for
seeking help.
The USOPC needs to be more proac-
tive, they said, not only with athletes
but with coaches, staff members and
NGBs.
“Oftentimes it is going on and wehave had some resources in place and
people don’t know about them. If they
haven’t requested that, they may not be
aware,” Donaldson said. “And part of
that is somewhere we can improve.
That’s something we’re trying to focus
on.”
Putting the onus on athletes to seek
help is the biggest barrier that needs to
be overcome. Elite athletes, by their
very nature, are conditioned to train
through injuries, disappointments and
setbacks. It should not be a surprise that
they would see depression, anxiety and
other mental health issues as just one
more thing to overcome.
Schmitt said athletes also have to
compete on their own. No one is going tofinish her race for her, for example. So
asking someone for help often won’t
even occur to them.
“It’s always been one of those things
that you can suppress it and push it
down. If it turns into a bigger issue, you
figure out a way to hide it under the rug,”
she said.
“I wish someone out there had an an-
swer of, ‘OK, this is what needs to be
done. We’re going to take leadership in
this going forward with it.’ ”
That is what the task force is de-
signed to do, Donaldson said. And it
can’t be of influence soon enough.
While the uncertainty of when or if
the Games will happen is over – the In-
ternational Olympic Committee said
last week the Games will be postponed a
year, to 2021 – the coming weeks and
months will be a potential minefield for
many athletes.
With stay-at-home orders in effect
across much of the country, most ath-
letes are unable to train and their rigid
schedules no longer exist. Financial
pressures are exacerbated. Some ath-
letes had very specific plans post-Tokyo
and are having to decide whether to
abandon or delay them.
The USOPC opened its counseling
services to all athletes, rather than only
to those on USOPC insurance, once it
was clear the Games were in limbo. It
also is keeping the psychiatrist and clin-
ical psychologist hired to accompany
the U.S. teams to the Olympics and Pa-
ralympics on staff through next sum-
mer.
“We are doing everything to get to
that gold medal. Nutrition help, physical
therapy help, recovery help – that help
is there,” Schmitt said. “But then once
you do get to that point or fall short of
that, there’s nothing left. You’re all on
your own. That’s a huge thing that’s
needed, knowing those resources are
there.”Armour
Continued from Page 1C
Gold medal-winning swimmer Allison Schmitt is working on a master’s in social
work and has interned as a counselor. 2012 PHOTO BY ROB SCHUMACHER/USA TODAY SPORTSothers. His wife, Angel, is a Coast Guard
pilot currently stationed in Miami. So
when Mississippi schools went on
spring break and later closed, Hughes
left their three children — ages 5, 2 and
four months — to stay with his parents,
who are in their 60s and live a few hours
away.
“I’ve limited my exposure to my kids,
to limit their exposure with the potential
virus to my parents,” he explained. “It’s
kind of weird. I have seen my kids in the
past two and half, three weeks, but I
haven’t really gotten a chance to engage
and play with my kids in the past two
and a half, three weeks.”
That lonesomeness has become one
of the unforeseen challenges of Hughes’
job, but a reality he accepts. He always
seemed destined for this type of career,
helping and serving others — even dur-
ing the five years he spent as a wide re-
ceiver with the Jacksonville Jaguars
and Detroit Lions, among other teams.
Hughes grew up learning about the
profession through the eyes of his fa-
ther, Nate Sr., a nurse anesthesist at
UMMC. In second grade, the younger
Hughes said, he was told to write down
what he wanted to be when he grew up.
He wrote pro football player and doctor.
Not either. Both. And then he made it
happen.
While earning all-American honors
at Championship Subdivision school
Alcorn State, Hughes also pursued a
nursing degree to gain practical experi-
ence. He stuck with football for a while,
bouncing around active rosters and
practice squads — but during the off-
seasons, he would volunteer at local
hospitals. And when the 2011 lockout
hit, Hughes got a full-time job as a
nurse.
Shortly thereafter, as he and his wife
discussed starting a family, Hughes de-
cided to fully pivot to a career in medi-
cine.
“Nate is one of those rare individuals
who can do both,” said Claude Brunson,an anesthesiologist and longtime family
friend. “He’s certainly not what you’d
consider the traditional — as folks
stereotype people — athlete or football
player.”
Hughes’ first year of residency hasexposed him to various lines of work. He
spent last month working in the hospi-
tal’s internal medicine division, treating
patients with ailments ranging from
respiratory infections to hypertension
and heart failure. This month, his focus
is anesthesia, which will require him to
spend more time working in patients’
airways and lungs — and, in turn, poten-
tially put him in closer contact with co-
ronavirus.
At the end of June, Hughes will move
to New Jersey, where he will spend the
next three years continuing his anes-
thesia training while completing his
residency at Rutgers.
“Nate will be on the front lines of
dealing with (coronavirus),” said Brun-
son, also the executive director of the
Mississippi State Medical Association.
“He will be in the specialty of physi-
cians, along with critical care physi-
cians, that are in line to take care of the
ones who have become most critically ill
and need ventilator support.”
For now, all Hughes can do is con-
tinue to work and wait. Mississippi only
recently eclipsed 1,000 confirmed cases
of coronavirus. Most models predict the
state’s caseload to peak in mid-April,
though that could change as nearby cit-
ies like New Orleans experience their
own surges.
Hughes said he continues to be
amazed by how little is known about
COVID-19. He recently dug up his notes
about coronaviruses from his second
year of medical school and found them
to be eerily brief. This wasn’t a major
topic of study. It wasn’t harped on.
“So many people think they know
so much about what’s going on, but in
the grand scheme of things, we really
don’t know as much as we would like to
know about the virus itself,” Hughes
said.
“The scariest thing is not knowing. ...
Not knowing what’s to be expected, and
why it is the way it is.”Front line
Continued from Page 1C
Lions wide receiver Nate Hughes returns a kick against the Bills in a 2012 NFL
preseason game in Detroit. PAUL SANCYA/APcommunications software for many col-
lege sports programs.
Forty-five percent of respondents
said they were neutral on his notion.
The survey was taken last week. On
Tuesday, NCAA president Mark Emmert
informed the membership that he and
other top executives of the association
are taking 20% pay cuts. Wednesday
evening, Iowa State AD Jamie Pollard
announced a one-year temporary pay
cut for coaches and certain staff, as well
as a one-year suspension of incentive
bonuses for all coaches. In addition,
Wyoming AD Tom Burman said on Twit-
ter that he will be taking a 10% salary cut
through Dec. 31.
The new survey also showed that
nearly 90% of the respondents said aca-
demic progress is one of their top three
concerns for their athletes over the next
three months, an outcome that shows
possible sentiment for a temporary
change in the NCAA’s academic-pro-
gress regulations as campus closures
have moved all students into distance
learning.
The survey provided other insight
into FBS programs’ financial situations:
❚Nearly 70% of respondents said
their worst-case scenarios for the 2019-
20 fiscal year involved a revenue de-
crease of no more than 20%.
❚But more than 60% of respondents
said their worst-case scenarios for the
2020-21 fiscal year involved a revenue
decrease of at least 20%, including 35%
who said their worst-case involved a de-
crease of more than 30%. That’s with-
out knowing whether the football sea-
son will be impacted.
❚More than 55% of respondents said
their programs do not have a financialreserve to help them through this situa-
tion.
The 15-question survey was conduct-
ed electronically from March 23 through
March 27, and 111 AD’s responded, ac-
cording to LEAD1. Of that group, 48 were
from schools in the Power Five confer-
ences, 62 from schools in the Group of
Five (one did not indicate a classifica-
tion). That means the number of re-
spondents skewed somewhat toward
lower-revenue schools. Respondents
did not have to answer every question,
and no question was answered by more
than 100 respondents.
LEAD1 President and CEO Tom
McMillen highlighted athletics direc-
tors’ concern about athletes’ academic
progress.
While he said his organization was
not yet advocating for temporary
changes to NCAA academic rules, he
said online-only class situations, com-
bined with disruption to normal aca-demic-support routines and some
schools’ increased use of pass-fail grad-
ing for the spring semester “changes the
whole calculus” of the NCAA’s Academ-
ic Performance Rate system.
The APR measures the academic eli-
gibility and retention of athletes. Teams
must meet a bench mark to be eligible
for postseason play.
The NCAA also has rules that require
athletes to make various rates of pro-
gress toward their degrees with certain
minimum grade-point averages.
On the broader financial picture,
McMillen said: “Folks are torn between
the mission of college sports – providing
as many broad-based opportunities to
participate as possible – and the busi-
ness side, relative to making budgets
balance. Some of them are saying, ‘Six-
teen sports – can’t we have a break on
that for a while?’
“Everything is dependent on foot-
ball.”Survey
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