Georgia High School Student Starts Website Around Mental Health

When Landon Denker’s thumb injury ended his lacrosse season last year, he took the opportunity to turn a negative experience into a positive one. The junior at The Lovett School in Atlanta, Georgia, experienced anxiety and depression as he sat the bench in recovery, missing out on practices and two of his team’s biggest rival games. However, he knew he wasn’t alone after witnessing several friends and teammates experience similar struggles.

Denker began researching teen mental health and substance abuse, juggling his busy social and academic life with late-night Google searches on available resources and best practices. He was able to confirm that this was a serious problem that needed a solution.

“I found that two million high school students get injured every year, and a quarter of those injuries are serious enough to have to see a doctor. Around 20 percent of high schoolers are having suicidal thoughts, and eight percent of them have attempted suicide,” Denker said.

As a result, Denker started FiveStar Comeback, a website highlighting mental health resources and inspirational articles from high schoolers around the national. Denker hopes to support student-athletes in their physical and mental recovery after suffering an injury.

"If you see that a student-athlete with a similar injury was able to overcome the adversity, then it can show that you can turn that setback into a comeback,” Denker said.

In a 2022 study by the CDC, 15 percent of high school students reported having ever used illicit or injection drugs, and 14 percent of students reported misusing prescription opioids. Lack of school connectedness and mental health issues are credited as factors that put these students at a high-risk of substance use.

A study conducted by the University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine found that 68 percent of the state’s student-athletes experienced symptoms of depression during the 2020 COVID-19 shutdown. Dr. Tim McGuine, a University of Wisconsin researcher who serves on the NFHS Sports Medicine Advisory Committee, correlated the increased number of student- athlete mental health symptoms during the nationwide lockdown with the social, emotional and psychological benefits of involvement in high school sports and activities.

The relationship between sports injuries and subsequent substance use and mental health concerns can speak to trends in the current culture of high school athletics, according to Denker.

He has seen positive outcomes of this culture, such as the individual growth and sense of teamwork that comes from playing a group sport. Interscholastic activities are a way for young people to make lifelong friendships and learn the value of discipline, hard work and perseverance.

Student-athletes, however, often face significant external pressure to represent their school and community. Denker explained how many players go into each game with hopes for the future such as competing at the college or professional level.

“When you’re injured, it feels like your life is over,” Denker said. He’s seen his peers become consumed by their sport. They often have grown up playing the game and spend a large portion of their time either playing it or watching it. “When that’s taken away from you, it feels like some of you is gone.”

When his lacrosse season met an early end after his thumb injury, he recognized a need for mental health training and empathy from adults when engaging with younger players.

“The coaches and trainers would ask how my thumb was doing and how I was recovering physically, but not how I was feeling mentally having to sit on the sideline,” Denker said. Having an adult ask about his mental health would have been beneficial for Denker during his injury, because it would have enforced that mental health is important and valid, demonstrate that people care for him outside of his ability to perform for the team.

Denker has not personally seen the website impact the way that faculty, staff, coaches and trainers talk about mental health and student-athletes. He does, however, see mental health getting talked about among fellow students more every day.

When FiveStar Comeback launched in early September 2022, it was a busy time for Denker because it was during his football season, but he wanted to get the site live as soon as possible. Since then, he has clocked countless hours into its maintenance to populate the webpage with new stories every week representing diverse sports and different types of injuries so more people can find something with which to relate.

Maintaining the site is a large commitment, but Denker finds the work to be incredibly fulfilling. He has already had several peers tell him that the digital resources he provided were helpful in their mental and physical recovery.

Denker is encouraged by this momentum and the success of his efforts. FiveStar Comeback has had more than 1,000 site visitors, and the Georgia High School Association shared the page with about 600 coaches across the state. He plans to continue highlighting successful recovery stories and hopes to share the website nationally.