When an ankle injury while playing pro soccer in Sweden derailed her athletic career in 2019, Gabbie Ewing felt bereft and unmoored. Ewing, an NCAA Division II All-American and the 2017 Great Northwest Athletic Conference player of the year for Portland’s Concordia University, hadn’t realized how much her identity and self-worth were wrapped up in soccer.
Ewing saw her mental health unravel, adding to an eating disorder she had in college.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do career-wise. I didn’t really know who I was outside of my sport … I lost a lot of my self-confidence,” she said in a phone interview from Western, where she was hired in April as assistant athletic director of marketing.
While back home in Hawaii, a discussion with younger brother Austin, a collegiate football player who endured three anterior cruciate ligament tears, revealed he was struggling, too.
That sparked The Athlete Confidential, a website (athleteconfidential.com) and podcast Ewing created in 2021 where athletes from around the country lay bare their mental health struggles in hopes of helping others talk about them. Ewing said it was scary.
“On my first blog post, I wrote about my first ever anxiety attack, which actually happened when I was a senior in college,” she said.
Ewing said her family was surprised and maybe a little hurt she chose a public platform to reveal her turmoil. It was hard explaining why that felt easier than revealing her feelings in private to them.
Athletes at the highest levels, like Olympic champion gymnast Simone Biles, U.S. Open tennis champion Naomi Osaka and NFL Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott have made talking about mental health more acceptable. But Ewing knows there’s still a stigma, especially among male athletes. In sports, vulnerability that comes from opening up is seen as a weakness, and “that can cause people to isolate themselves,” Ewing said. “The more we can talk about it within the community of athletics, I only see positive things coming from that.”
The October deaths of two Western students in one 24-hour period, one a likely suicide, reportedly did not involve athletes. But it brought the issue of mental health to the fore.
All of which made Ewing’s “passion project” (she does not profit from the website) even more timely. She has brought some of that emphasis to her job that includes managing a group of eight students in running game-day promotions and events. Ewing enlisted the volleyball team to do a Mental Health Awareness game vs. Alaska Anchorage this fall. She produced the video that included messaging from players, and T-shirts with The Athlete Confidential’s slogan: Human First, Athlete Second. She has also spearheaded other events emphasizing Native Heritage and disability awareness that involve Western’s basketball and softball teams.
Ewing said she loves her Western job, working with colleagues and mentors who have supported her. It was her mission to find full-time work in sports, and she feels lucky to have this job, following a part-time job with the Portland Thorns and Timbers soccer teams, followed by a GNAC internship.
Good mental health is still a work in progress for Ewing, but a necessary one. With a demanding job, she struggles to find enough time to keep the podcast going. But she has heard from former teammates and coaches, as well as others, who have said “Oh, I experienced that as well. No one’s ever talked about this. Thanks for talking about it.’”
Western coach is GNAC cross country coach of the year
Western’s Ben Stensland was named the GNAC cross country coach of the year for the second-straight year — the eighth time a Viking coach has won the award since the GNAC began in 2001. The 10 conference coaches vote on the award. T.J. Garlatz and Haley Stensland are assistants with Stensland, who also oversees the track and field team.
The program saw both women’s and men’s teams three-peat as conference champions, each finish runner-up in the NCAA Division II West Regionals and place 11th (women) and 13th (men) in the NCAA Division II Championships.
Pee Wee Halsell won the first six coach of the year honors. He retired after the 2022 season.
BEST BETS
7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 5 – Women’s basketball vs. Montana State Billings, Bellingham. It’s the GNAC season opener for both teams as injury-plagued Western (4-3) returns to Carver Gym for the first time since Nov. 12. It’s a good yardstick for the Vikings against the No. 3 nationally ranked MSUB (7-1) squad, the defending regular-season GNAC champs, who finished a close second to Western in the preseason poll by conference coaches.
7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7 – Women’s basketball vs. Seattle Pacific, Bellingham. SPU was selected eighth of 10 teams in the GNAC preseason poll.
3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 15 – Men’s basketball vs. Langara College, Bellingham. A rare Sunday matinee against non-conference Langara from Vancouver, B.C.
Tickets. See wwuvikings.com/Tickets or in person one hour prior to game time.
Parking. Free for sports. For basketball, lot 19G for general audience; 9G for season ticket holders. See the map at wwu.edu/parking.
Can’t make it? Stream it
All home games and most road contests are streamed via a live and free YouTube webcast. Find links online at cascadiadaily.com.
If you have a smart TV, search for “WWU Athletics” on YouTube.
We want to hear from you
Got a WWU sports-related news tip or interesting item for this notebook, or a good story idea? We’re all ears. Send to newstips@cascadiadaily.com, subject line: WWU sports notebook.
Meri-Jo Borzilleri is a freelance journalist and former 20-year sports reporter.
