Mental Health Awareness with The Hidden Opponent: Albany's Ava Poupard

USA Lacrosse is partnering with The Hidden Opponent throughout May, shining a light on student-athletes across the country doing their part to end the stigma surrounding mental health.

The Hidden Opponent is a non-profit and advocacy group that raises awareness about student-athlete mental health. With a network of hundreds of Campus Captains, The Hidden Opponent is making a significant impact across all sports.

UAlbany star Ava Poupard is a Campus Captain who is passionate about raising awareness about the resources students at her university have at their disposal. She shares her story with us today — head to USA Lacrosse’s Instagram for more from Poupard.

Walk us through your background with lacrosse.

I grew up in a lacrosse household. I learned from my dad, who played in college. He played at Delaware. I started playing around 3 years old, and I've grown to love this sport. It's been a passion of mine for so long.

What brought you to Albany?

Everyone knows who Katie Rowan is. She was an amazing player, and she's an amazing coach. To be able to play under her and my other coaches, it's just an amazing opportunity. When I was going through recruitment, it was during COVID. We didn't get to go on as many visits. We didn't get to talk to as many student-athletes, but having a phone call with these coaches and being able to come to this campus, even if it was kind of restricted, I knew right away I wanted to come here. Albany has an amazing past — the women's and the men's teams have such a rich history.

What’s your favorite part of playing lacrosse?

My favorite part of playing is getting connections with teammates. You learn how to play with other people, and that translates into real life. It’s so much fun to be creative and know where other people are going to be. I've played every sport in the book, and I've stuck with lacrosse this long because it’s a family sport and I love playing and being creative.

How did you get into working with The Hidden Opponent?

The Hidden Opponent is a national organization that strives to break the stigma around student-athlete mental health, specifically through educating athletes and advocating for student-athletes. When I was a freshman, I was a young kid on the team but I was still advocating for mental health. I’ve always tried to look out for student-athletes on my team and at my school. One of our Student-Athlete Advisory Council representatives reached out to me and just said, ‘We don't have [Campus Captains] on our campus, but she thought that I’d be a great first person.

My sophomore year, I bought into being a partner in it. We all applied to be campus captains and were accepted. Then, we hit the ground running. We founded the chapter of The Hidden Opponent here on campus during my sophomore year. We started doing mental health awareness games. We started connecting with our school's counseling services and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. We’ve almost quadrupled in size coming into this year. I thought I would do a great job bringing it onto our campus and continually growing, and our group has done such a great job. I'm so proud of every single person that’s been involved with this.

How excited are you to see how much you've accomplished in these two years?

It’s very exciting, but even more credit to our administration, my coaches, and other campus captains and members of our club. Everyone here thinks mental health is as important as I think it is. The more people I talk to, the higher up I go, they all agree with me. Every day, I have new student-athletes and new administrators coming up to me, sharing their new ideas for next year since I am coming back as president.

What has drawn you to the topic of mental health?

I was taught that you must train your mental game more than your physical game. You can train your skill, you can train your speed, but the more you could hone in on your mind, that's so important. Not enough people are taught that, specifically at a young age. I've met hundreds of athletes over the years that I've played with and against that weren’t taught that. They weren’t getting coached that the mental game is just as important as what happens on the field. I'm thankful that my coaches always say that you're a student before you're an athlete. You're a person before you're a player.

Our coaches always say take five minutes today, just five minutes. We’re all busy, but those five minutes will help you. I wish more coaches and athletes could use those five minutes to learn more about their mental health and learn more about their resources.

Have you seen firsthand the tangible benefits that The Hidden Opponent and Campus Captains have had?

I've seen many, many stories of students using the resources and people who continuously come to our mental health awareness games or even our campus events. They come back and say thank you for shining a light on it. Many athletes don't think it's important to go get help, or they think it knocks them down, and it’s the opposite. It makes you so much stronger to be able to talk about any struggle you're having or to be willing to work on anything that you're struggling with.

What would you tell someone who is struggling?

I try to tell them to take a moment to step back and find some gratitude. I know it's hard on those tough days to find some gratitude. I'm sure I may not feel like it right now, but this is the sport that you love. This is what should bring you joy. There’s stress that comes along with it. There are struggles that come along with it, but you can always come back to the happiness of it, the passion of it. Then, I’d say that you have a wealth of resources around you. You have teammates, you have coaches, you have anonymous resources, and you can go to counseling. Just reach out. It's not beneficial to isolate yourself.