Ohio State’s Ryan Day Explains His Commitment To Mental Health Advocacy
Ryan Day is a champion head coach. Ohio State is a championship program. When you think of the two together, the College Football Playoff championship trophy has to come to mind.
It’s easy to get pigeonholed in the “football guy” aesthetic, though. When most people think about football they think about big, tough athletes who run through walls and eat barbells for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
As with anything, though, we as people are so much more than our careers and vocations. Also, just because you rock the “football guy” aesthetic, that doesn’t mean you don’t have feelings and emotions. That also doesn’t mean you can’t struggle with things like anxiety and depression.
That’s why Day and his wife, Christina, are active in the cause of mental health. They’ve made sizable donations to Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center and College of Medicine. They also started the Christina and Ryan Day Fund for Pediatric and Adolescent Mental Wellness at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
It’s more than football, for Day. As he tells it on “The Triple Option” podcast, he wants Ohio State to be a place where people can be open and honest about their mental health. Much of that is because of his experiences growing up. Day lost his father to suicide when he was only eight years old.
“The mental health thing has always been important to me based on the way that I grew up and some of the things that I experienced growing up,” Day said on the podcast. “Through Nationwide Children’s and through OSU, I think Columbus is the leader in the country in the mental health space.”
Day wants Ohio State to not just be a championship-level program on the field, but he wants his Buckeyes to be mental health advocates as well.
“It’s good for Buckeye Nation, for Columbus, for Ohio to see guys who are at the biggest stage, big strong guys who are still willing to say, ‘Hey, man, I’m struggling today. I need a little help,'” Day explained.
There are perhaps few people better to talk about the biggest stage in college football and the amount of pressure that comes with it. Day’s Buckeyes just beat the Notre Dame Fighting Irish for the CFP Championship, yet if he doesn’t do it again next season, he’ll face a ton of pressure and scrutiny from those around him in Columbus.
That’s not why he’s active in this cause, but, notably, Day is such a strong advocate for mental health while simultaneously coaching at college football’s biggest pressure cooker
