Mental Health Awareness in Sports with Harvard’s Derek Schaedig

In this episode, host Keith Woodward talks with Derek Schaedig who was Harvard University’s goalie and recently graduated. Derek wrote an article called “Down but Not Out.” It starts with “My name is Derek Schaedig. I am a goalie for the men’s hockey team at Harvard; I am a sophomore studying Psychology; I am a writer for The Crimson; and in April 2019, I was diagnosed with major depressive disorder, more commonly referred to as depression. I am not immune to mental illness, and neither are many student-athletes.”  This is a real example of what some athletes go through. And Derek had tremendous support from his teammates, classmates, coaches and parents, but there were some moments in his story that could have gone differently. Derek now works at the Mental Health Foundation of West Michigan where he is a program coordinator. Derek’s resilience is one that you might think about sharing, if you know someone who is struggling. And stay to the end; Harvard beats Quinnipiac in a critical game where the Bobcats have a 6-on-4 advantage late in the third period (by the way Rand pulls the goalie, and it works!) and Jayden Lee scored less than a minute into the power play to tie the game at two with about six minutes remaining in the game. Derek didn't want to bring it up, but we talked about it. All episodes begin with Quinnipiac Student Matt Mungo’s call on the Quinnipiac Bobcat Sports Network of the National Championship goal. Thanks to QBSN for letting us use this audio. The Tenth Second is a production of the Quinnipiac University Podcast Studio, and is hosted by Keith Woodward, the university's director of facilities. The podcast is produced and engineered by Justin Moravsky, and is mastered by David DesRoches, the university's director of community programming. Student Jillian Catalano is the social media coordinator. Music is "Running in Circles" by Diane Taylor, used under the Creative Commons license. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @TheTenthSecond