Player Intro
Sam Bowman played collegiate basketball at University of North Georgia, as well as at Covenant College. He has demonstrated leadership and teaching qualities on the court, which have translated to coaching and ministry after his collegiate career. Sam is outspoken about his struggles with mental health, and discusses how sports has provided him with the tools to keep overcoming
depression and anxiety on a daily basis.
Gameplan
pD: Talk to me about your sports and fitness background.
SB: I played basketball, little bit of football, and tennis in high school. Before that, I just grew up playing sports all my life. I went on after high school to play one year of basketball at University of North Georgia, which was called North Georgia College and State University when I went there.
I transferred to Covenant, played three years there, and while I was in college, I started playing volleyball just for fun as a hobby. After college, I discovered that I still needed a competitive sports outlet, and I hardly played basketball anymore, but I have continued playing volleyball competitively, in tournaments and stuff. That led to me meeting my wife through the volleyball community, and now I'm coaching high school volleyball with her.
She's the head coach for a local high school where we live in Georgia, and I'm helping her assistant coach. Along the way, I've done some assistant coaching at the high school level and some head coaching for basketball for middle school teams.
pD: You talked about still needing that competitive outlet. Why was it so important for you to continue to play sports and to still compete?
SB: I think it's always been the most healthy escape for me. It's really helped me with my mood and it's just kind of a balance piece in my life that, if it's not there, I just kind of start to drift a little bit. So something about the structure and just the teamwork of being involved in competitive sports gives me a drive and something to look forward to.
I went to a therapist, and he told me, just listening to my story, he said, "Sam, you gotta get back in the game." This was a point in my life where I was just really struggling with depression, and one thing that was lacking was exercise and that activity in sports. He said, "It sounds to me from your story that's always been a healthy part of your life, and you gotta get back in the game, whether it's coaching or playing. It's a really healthy way for you to cope and take care of yourself."
pD: Through all this time, you've said most of your life that you've been playing sports or coaching. What are some habits or traits that you've picked up through your time in sports?
SB: There's been a lot. I think the biggest one, probably, is teamwork. By that, I mean playing whatever role is needed for the greater good. I remember on a lot of teams, playing different roles and just learning what I'm bringing to the team, what the team needs, and what's the best thing I can do to help the team succeed and win.
That's been one; I think perseverance, and kind of along that, resilience or grit, having a "next play" mentality, which I'll actually talk about in my video.
And then also, just coaching as a habit; I've become a coach and teacher, which has to do with my involvement in sports, having always been a player-coach, always been the friendly peer player that would coach and say, "Hey, I've learned this. This will help you out." And after I was done playing sports, that was something I really enjoyed: giving back skills that I have learned, and that's my greatest joy, seeing skills that I've learned passed on to other people, and getting them to enjoy success, and getting to see that because of the investment I've made.
I think the last one is analysis and strategy. I've always been a real analytical thinker, and I think sports has taught me that there's a lot of times a smarter way to do things. You can always find a better way to do things and continue to improve the process if you're not getting the results that you want; you can learn through the struggle of working with the team and having to try to win, and I just love that. I do it in board games, in coaching, at work, and I think that skill is mostly learned and sharpened through sports.
pD: Talk to me a little bit about your transition from being a player to being a coach. What did you have to change about your approach?
SB: Coaching is a lot more difficult than playing, because I find myself in so many situations as a coach where I know what to do as a player, but being able to relate that and being able to break that down and see where somebody else is at, and teach them what you already know how to do, those are two totally different things: knowing what to do, and how to teach it to somebody else.
So I think the biggest approach has been trying to learn where people are at and that not every player is on the same level, and not every player receives correction the same way, motivated the same way. So for me, it's taking a step back; as a player, you just kind of say whatever, but as a coach, I've had to learn to take a step back and learn who each player on my team is, and what motivates them and how I can communicate with them the best. So I think it's a communication and relationship type adjustment that has to take place.
pD: You have to be a lot more intentional and mindful about what you're saying and how you're saying it.
SB: That is exactly what I was trying to say.
pD: Out of all these habits you've talked about: coaching as a way of life, grit, teamwork, all of this stuff, how have you seen it carry over into other parts of life?
SB: I would say the biggest challenge that I've faced in my life is post-college, post-team sports, dealing with mental health, with depression and anxiety: something that just kind of came and blindsided me. When it comes to what I learned through resilience and perseverance, it's been such a valuable lesson to learn those things because I've learned through my battle with depression and anxiety, I've learned that battle, that fight, never stops for me.
So I've learned, similar to how it is in sports, even if you're in offseason, you never stop working, you keep working every day because you realize that if you're not working, you're regressing. And it's been the same with my battle with mental health: I've learned that I've got to persevere and fight every day, because the fight never stops, so I can't stop fighting. So I'm really thankful for the lessons I've learned in sports.
That battle with mental health never stops for me
Another way, in the teamwork aspect, the battles that I've won in my mental health has been conquering in community. The defeats that I've faced have been in isolation. The more that I've learned to bring teamwork into that struggle and build a team of people around me that care about me, which involves me being vulnerable, asking other people for help, communicating with other people; the more that I do those things, the healthier I become. Those are all aspects of teamwork. I've discovered that everybody has different struggles, and for me, this has been the biggest challenge I've faced. There are some struggles that are just designed to be conquered in community and with a team of people.
The defeats I've faced have been in isolation
So for me, it took me a while to translate over that teamwork aspect from sports and apply it to a personal struggle where there's a big stigma, and [depression] sounds like something I need to just handle myself, and just worry about myself, and keep it to myself, and conquer it myself. As long as I did that, I just suffered in silence, was unsuccessful in making up any ground, but as soon as I brought it into the light, and started talking about it, started sharing it with other people, started asking for help, that's when I started to see change.
pD: So you're talking about this challenge of mental health, depression and anxiety. What did it mean for you to go through some of those struggles that you've gone through? What's the significance of that struggle in your life?
SB: It's really everything for me. I'm a youth pastor now, so I'm working with kids, and I always thought I would end up in some sort of ministry because I really have a heart for people and relationships, just building and investing, discipling other people. So that calling came early on, but then the struggle with depression came right in the middle before I actually was placed into ministry. So for me, what it means is: it's really enabled me, in a way that I had never before experienced, to be able to connect with people that are broken and that are hurting.
I'm so aware that people around me... are struggling
I think it's totally transformed the way that I think about life, the way that I think about ministering to other people, coaching other people. Right now, I'm so very keenly aware that people around me, no matter what they look like on the surface, are probably struggling with demons, and it's because of struggling with my own challenge, the reality of that in my own life, that I now have eyes to see it all around me, and be able to touch and heal some of those needs and some of those struggles that I see people facing around me. So it's really a part of my life every day, for good and for bad.
pD: So final question; what would you tell your players if they're struggling with mental health while trying to grow and compete as athletes at the same time?
SB: I think that I would tell them what other people have told me: I would encourage them to talk to a professional, to get some counseling or some help, because I really wouldn't have been able to make progress if I had not gone to see a therapist. I would just share my own personal story and my struggle with them, and let them know, "Hey, you're not alone. This is not abnormal at all; sadly, it's become the norm, and most people are not talking about it because there's a huge stigma associated with mental health."
We're gonna make it together. I won't let you sink.
But I would just re-iterate, that it heals when it's brought out into the light, and so if you can keep the conversation open, if you're struggling with something, let's talk. I'm here for you, let's not pretend like it's not there, because that's the one thing that'll make it worse. But if we can just talk about it, walk together through it, you're gonna make it. We're gonna make it together. I won't let you sink down.
And there's plenty of other good advice I could give, but I think ultimately, someone who is struggling and in that place, they need to know they're not alone, and that it's safe to talk to you about it, if you're the one on the receiving end of that conversation. I'm gonna be here with you and walk through this with you.
Execution
Sam has shared a video talking about resiliency, how to bounce back from mistakes, and creating a mindset that focuses on the "next play." Learn how to take ownership of a failure and be better the next time around.