The high-pressure, competitive atmosphere of Bowdoin academics and athletics can leave student-athletes breathless. With this issue in mind, a group of student-athletes are working with The Hidden Opponent to create a new space for athletes to exhale.

The Hidden Opponent (THO) is a national organization dedicated to supporting and educating college athletes on mental health practices and encouraging an open dialogue around the challenges student-athletes face. Given its expansive goals, the organization relies on student-athletes and coaches to set up individual chapters on college campuses across the country.

Ava Biasotti ’26 decided to take the initiative to set up a chapter, becoming the president and campus captain of Bowdoin’s THO. Campus captains are responsible for bringing THO and its message to campuses nationwide, the title bestowed on a student after they engage with the organization’s mental health resources and training.

Biasotti says she was inspired to start a chapter after the founder of THO, Victoria Garrick Browne, visited her high school and highlighted THO and the campus captain program. Garrick Browne also visited Bowdoin in 2022 to discuss her nonprofit. After Biasotti listened to Garrick Browne in high school, she applied and subsequently started the club as a first year on Bowdoin’s campus. Only those who have applied, been accepted and completed the campus captain program can start an official college chapter of THO.

According to Biasotti, student-athletes at Bowdoin face a number of stressors that cause them to struggle with their mental health. Biasotti believes that THO is critical to helping student-athletes manage their stress.

“[Athletic stress is] very similar to academic stress in the way that you feel like you have to perform, and if you don’t perform, if you don’t do well, then you’re basically a failure,” Biasotti said. “That can hurt, and it weighs on you.”

Last year, the organization’s activities focused on instituting mental health awareness games within teams, which served the additional purpose of advertising the broader club. The club also set up a table with flyers advertising mental health resources both on and off campus.

This year, Biasotti increased the capacity and size of the club, which currently meets as a full group once every two weeks, through the creation of subgroups that conduct work outside the club-wide meetings.

The mental health awareness games subgroup develops activities for the club, while the campus outreach subgroup develops other activities to raise awareness for the club among new athletes and coaches. Meanwhile, the social media subgroup promotes the club’s activities and events via Instagram. The final group is focused on first-year integration.

Bella Mele ’27, the leader of the first-year integration subgroup, focuses on supporting first year students through the difficult transition from high school to college sports.

“Our focus is on [first years] just because of how hard the transition is,” Mele said. “It’s balancing your social life with your academic life, and on top of that, you’ve got practice for an hour and a half, two hours, three hours every day.… I think part of prioritizing mental health is acknowledging that you can’t do everything perfectly all the time.”

The organization’s leaders acknowledge that more needs to be done to recruit coaches and more male athletes to the club. While the club now claims 45 members, two thirds of whom are committed to attending every meeting and running events, the club has six male athletes, an increase from the previous year when only two were involved. Biasotti says this gender disparity between the men’s and women’s teams needs to change.

“That’s definitely one of the focuses for this year: getting more involved with the men’s teams, because … it’s a male stereotype where, if you’re struggling with depression or anxiety, you’re struggling with your mental health, [then] you’re viewed as weak,” Biasotti said.

Campus THO leaders contend that the organization’s efforts have already had a significant impact. For Mary Rainey ’27, vice president and another campus captain, the organization has built trust between athletes and boosted her self-confidence.

“It’s provided a community of other athletes that I know are going through a very similar thing, which is really comforting to know,” Rainey said. “I think that other teammates have felt like they can be vulnerable too.… We had a really honest conversation about mental health last semester, and I don’t think I would have felt comfortable doing that without an organization here whose primary focus is getting those hard conversations going.”