With the 2022 Winter Olympics in full swing, one Millersville University professor is playing a key role in caring for athletes’ mental health – an issue that has risen in significance since the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Marc Felizzi, an associate professor at MU’s School of Social Work, was recently selected to serve as a mental health provider to active or retired Olympic and Paralympic athletes for the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee. A USOPC spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Becoming a USOPC provider was a yearlong process involving several interviews and other vetting. Felizzi applied to USOPC last year, after he was referred by another organization that he joined in 2016 – the Alliance of Social Workers in Sports. USOPC approved his application last week, allowing him to meet with Olympians and Parlamypians by Zoom, phone or in person.
Marc Felizzi, associate professor at Millersville University’s School of Social Work, coaches the Saints Peter & Paul High School hockey team in Easton, Maryland in 1995. Felizzi had a hand in starting the program as part of the Maryland Scholastic Hockey League in 1993.
Felizzi has a private practice based in Wilmington, Delaware, where he lives.
The committee, formed in 2019, lists over 100 mental health professionals on its national registry. Jessica Bartley, director of mental health services for the USOPC, told Time Magazine that her team received about 10 requests daily to support athletes’ mental health during the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
But, it took American gymnast Simone Biles’ withdrawal from a team event in the 2020 Games to spark the conversation.
“We, in the profession, know it’s been an issue,” Felizzi said. “But, when a high profile athlete says that they need to take a break… it’s really done a great thing to do away with the stigma of mental health.”
Felizzi has been involved in athletics as a coach, player or referee for most of his life. He became involved with social work about 30 years ago.
“There were so many amazing parallels between social work and working with athletes,” Felizzi said. “I’ve just been fortunate enough to stay involved with athletics while I worked my way up the social work ranks and… several years ago it just became a natural leap, if you will, into the world of working with athletes.”
The intersection of social work and athletics is so important to Felizzi, in fact, that he created Millersville’s dual degree in social work and sport management in 2019. The program, according to MU’s website, is the only of its kind in North America.
“That really gives the students an extremely well-rounded experience,” he said. “That develops not just social work skills, but develops the sports management skills that they need to work within an athletic organization.”
And, students learning from Felizzi benefit from the added edge of hearing his first-hand experiences with America’s most elite athletes.
“Being able to talk about things that students may never think about when working with clients” Felizzi said. “It’s just invaluable, it’s just priceless. I’m grateful for that opportunity because I’m going to bring real-life scenarios in the classroom, rather than some dusty old textbook.”
Jennifer Klinger is in her first year pursuing a master’s in social work at MU and recently enrolled in Felizzi’s new Mental Health, Sport and Social Work course.
“You can see his passion in it and it’s actually making me think maybe this is the avenue I want to pursue and do the dual degree,” Klinger said, adding that Felizzi is one of her favorite teachers.
Working with Olympic clientele only adds to the realm of detailed knowledge Felizzi shares with his students, Klinger said.
“He’s the perfect guy,” she said. “It isn’t his first endeavor into a national role. He can really inspire people.”