In 2021, Olympic gymnast Simone Biles withdrew from the women’s team final at the Tokyo Olympics to prioritize her mental health. That same year, tennis champion Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open, citing the same reasons. Both athletes were transparent about their struggles.

Biles and Osaka are among a growing number of athletes who are challenging the stigma associated with seeking help for mental health. 

Lauren Shute — assistant professor at UNLV, former sports reporter, and Division I women’s college basketball player at the University of Richmond — launched a first of its kind course in the School of Social Work to meet the need for services in the athletic space.

The new course gives aspiring social workers the tools to help strengthen the health of individuals, groups, teams, and organizations in sports environments. Social workers can work in a vast array of settings, including licensure for counseling and clinical work.

This version of SW 461: Contemporary Issues in Social Welfare zeroes in on how emotional dysregulation is connected to athletic performance and why clinical social workers can help athletes through the challenges of competing in sports at all levels.

The class is an elective course for any undergraduate major and will appeal to anyone interested in careers related to sports. 

Who is teaching the course?

Shute earned her Master of Social Work from Fordham University in New York City. While at Fordham, she developed the university’s first behavioral health field practicum within the athletic department and worked as both an administrative assistant and clinical team member for the National Football League (NFL) Player Care Foundation.

At UNLV, Shute recently received a research grant from the UNLV Sport Innovation Institute to examine the health needs of female student athletes.

Why is the course relevant to today? 

Throughout the class, Shute emphasizes the need to support college athletes. These athletes can experience cyber bullying and stresses from sudden fame and fortune, and all at early ages. Athletes can face enormous pressure from the public, financial pressures, and performance anxiety. 

The National Collegiate Athletic Association conducted a study in 2024 which monitored public comments targeting the online profiles of student-athletes, coaches, and officials participating in seven NCAA championships and the College Football Playoff National Championship. The NCAA released statements calling on fans and social media companies to curb rampant online abuse. 

For an athlete, life is like a Jenga game tower, Shute explains to her students. The bricks in the game are not all the same size; something is bound to cause the tower to tumble if crucial pieces are taken out. A personal injury, an ill family member, a relationship has gone awry — anything could happen. 

Shute added, social workers can be an integral part of an athlete’s ability to strengthen the mind, which is as important as strengthening the physical body.

“College athletes are leaders and already resilient,” Shute said. “Social workers can provide countless tools that can help athletes thrive in athletics, professionally, and relationally throughout their lives, but I think we are especially equipped to help athletes embrace how to be more human.”

What is something students will be surprised to learn? 

“Students who have taken this course since I've taught it at Louisiana State University and UNLV have expressed surprise about essentially how this class helps them humanize elite athletes.This group has a reputation in society for being superhuman, and I think a lot of students who take this course are surprised to learn that athletes are people, too,” Shute said.

What excites you the most about teaching this class? 

“I think a better question is, what does not excite me about teaching this class?" said Shute.

"The most exciting thing so far is when students have reported back that they're able to use the knowledge gained in this course and actually apply it in their lives somehow. I've seen students gain confidence through interactions with clients, professionals, even friends or peers, that they would not have been able to have before."

What is something even lay people should know from this course?

“This class really is ideal for those who are unfamiliar with the world of sport," explained Shute. Students gain a historical perspective, organizational understanding, a sense of the major common problems and issues athletes face, and get a glimpse of what has been done to address those problems.

The reading list:

For social workers who want to get in the game, Shute recommends Sports Social Work: Promoting the Functioning and Well-Being of College and Professional Athletes by Matt Moore and Ginger Gummelt.