Being a high school athlete is not all glory and popularity. The anxiety of performing up to their own and other’s expectations, along with the pressures of school, can be overwhelming to many. Next week, someone who has dealt with similar pressures and more will give a talk to Windham High School students to help them cope with their mental health, which for athletes can be just as important as physical health.
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| Former college basketball star Kaleb Johnson will speak at Windham High School on Sept. 2 about athletes' mental health in a presentation sponsored by the Windham Raymond Boosters Club. SUBMITTED PHOTO |
Joseph grew up in a dysfunctional family, one of 11 children, using basketball as an escape. Defying the odds, he received his first Division 1 scholarship offer as an eighth grader and later committed to playing basketball at Syracuse University, his dream school.
“When I played good, I felt like the man,” Joseph said in a video taken when he spoke last year at the University of New England in Biddeford. “I wanted everybody to know that I did this. That I’m the guy. The one with 11 siblings. The one who was going to take care of his family. The one who’s going to get a million dollars and take care of his mom. I wanted everybody to know that I’m the guy who did that.”
“As a preseason National Freshman of the Year candidate, Joseph faced overwhelming pressure and expectations,” according to the Self Help Tour website of which the Self Help Tour was founded by Joseph to help him spread his message. “Basketball became a source of anxiety,” and the pressure became “paralyzing.”
“When I played bad like, I felt shame,” Joseph said. “I felt embarrassment. I didn’t like myself at all. You can’t stop thinking about the mistakes, you can’t stop thinking about the turnovers, you can’t stop thinking about what everybody else is thinking about you.”
And there were times he did play bad. At one point he was on the top 10 list of Sports Illustrated most disappointing players.
“When the article came out it crushed me,” Joseph said. He couldn’t face it, he said, and it got to the point that he wanted to kill himself, “all because I wouldn’t talk about it.”
“And now I have no choice but to face my fears every single day and have conversations like this with you because I know for a fact you guys know exactly what I’m talking about,” he said.
Fortunately, some former professional basketball players who had faced their own demons helped him.
Now, Joseph travels the country sharing his story and guiding others. As a mental performance coach, he helps other athletes. “Through emotional intelligence workshops, team consulting, and one-on-one coaching, (Joseph) helps individuals, communities, and organizations lean into vulnerability, build self-awareness, and cultivate an identity strong enough to carry them through all of life’s adversities.”
“My goal when working with teams is to help every athlete understand that the real challenge is ‘you vs. you,’” Joseph said. “By gaining control over their own reactions and emotions, they not only elevate their individual performance but also contribute to a stronger, more cohesive team culture. It’s about creating a safe space where difficult conversations lead to real trust, accountability, and ultimately collective success.
“My intention with these sessions is to create a space where athletes can truly understand their emotions and how their minds work, and then apply that understanding to their everyday lives. It’s about making real, lasting change, not just theory,” he said.
Kristin Drottar, the president of the Windham Raymond Boosters and a teacher, said she’s hopeful athletes and their parents will find Joseph’s talk helpful. Her son plays football, basketball and lacrosse.
She said the athletic director attended a talk Joseph gave in Kittery a couple of years ago and was impressed with what he heard.
“(Joseph) just talked about that you’re a person before you’re a player,” Drottar said. “And the pressures that you might feel and how to deal with those, and how to kind of help yourself not just with being a strong player but also having a strong mental mindset around sports.”
Even before learning about Joseph, she said, the boosters board members were talking about how “we often see the kids come off of the court and they put their heads down if they make a bad play or they get upset if they miss a shot.” The boosters, who are mainly parents of student athletes, see how much pressure their kids put on themselves, she said, “and (we) really wanted to focus on supporting the athletes emotionally and their mental well-being as well as what we’ve been doing, which is supporting them physically with what they need to compete in their sports.”
The Windham Raymond Athletic Boosters are unified boosters, Drottar said “so we support all athletic programs at the high school” through fundraising like holding a craft fair every November and running concessions at various sporting events. The boosters support the athletic teams in ways such as purchasing extra golf bags if needed, contributing to new score boards, providing monetary gifts to teams to purchase items they need or want, providing scholarships, as well as sponsoring talks like the one Joseph will give next week. <
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