Student-athletes are trained to push through pain, perform under pressure, and keep their focus on the next play. The Beyond the Playbook Foundation was created to make sure they do not have to do it alone.
The Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based organization was founded in March 2026 with a clear purpose: to bridge the gap between athletic performance and mental well-being. It works to ensure student-athletes have access to mental health support, trusted resources, and safe environments where they can openly address the pressures they experience both in competition and in everyday life.
For Cariece Peck, CEO and Founder, the mission grew from the intersection of two areas that have played significant roles in her professional career: mental health and sports. After working in the mental health field for more than 15 years and also serving as a publicist for professional athletes, Peck recognized what she believed was a significant need for additional mental health support within the sports community.
“I have seen firsthand what happens when people carry emotional pain, stress, depression, anxiety, trauma, and overwhelming expectations without having the right support,” Peck says. “When I began working closely with athletes, I realized that being talented, successful, strong, or physically gifted does not make someone immune to mental health struggles.”
Student-athletes can face a unique combination of pressures. In addition to academics and everyday life, they may be managing demanding training schedules, injuries, expectations from coaches and family members, competition for playing time, scholarships, social media scrutiny, fear of failure, and questions about their identity when their sport does not go as planned. Beyond the Playbook seeks to normalize conversations about mental health within athletics while helping student-athletes develop the resilience, confidence, and emotional strength necessary to succeed not only in their sport, but throughout their personal, academic, and professional lives. To support student athlete mental health resources, the foundation connects young athletes with the help they need before struggles become crises.
The numbers underscore why these conversations matter. An NCAA study involving more than 23,000 student-athletes during the 2022 to 23 academic year found that mental health concerns remained elevated despite improvements from the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Among participants in women’s sports, 44% reported feeling overwhelmed and 35% reported feeling mentally exhausted. Among participants in men’s sports, 17% reported feeling overwhelmed and 16% reported feeling mentally exhausted.
Access to support, and feeling comfortable using it, also remains an important issue. NCAA research found that while roughly two-thirds of student-athletes knew where to seek help on campus for mental health concerns, fewer than half, 47%, said they would feel comfortable personally seeking support from a mental health provider on campus.
Research on suicide among collegiate athletes has raised additional concerns. A 20-year analysis published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine examined NCAA athlete deaths between 2002 and 2022. Researchers identified 128 deaths by suicide among 1,102 total athlete deaths. During the latter decade of the study, suicide was the second most common cause of death among NCAA athletes, behind accidents, and the proportion of athlete deaths attributed to suicide increased from 7.6% during the first decade to 15.3% during the second.
The study noted that these findings should not be interpreted to mean collegiate athletes necessarily have a higher suicide rate than their non-athlete peers. Suicide rates among collegiate athletes remained lower than those in the general population of comparable age. What the research does demonstrate is that student-athletes are not immune to suicide or serious mental health challenges, and that prevention, early identification, and access to appropriate support remain critical.
For Peck, that is exactly why Beyond the Playbook exists.
“People see the jersey, the talent, the trophies and the highlights, but they don’t always see the person underneath all of it,” Peck says. “Athletes are expected to perform, compete, remain disciplined and push through adversity. Sometimes that expectation to always be strong can make it even harder to say, ‘I’m struggling’ or ‘I need help.'”
Peck wants Beyond the Playbook to help change that culture.
“My goal is to create a space where asking for help is viewed as strength, not weakness,” she says. “We train athletes physically to become stronger, faster and better at their sport. We have to be just as intentional about strengthening and protecting their mental health.”
The foundation is built around the belief that an athlete’s value extends far beyond a scoreboard, scholarship, statistics, or athletic accomplishments. By connecting student-athletes with mental health resources and support, the organization hopes to intervene before struggles become crises while helping young athletes develop skills they can carry throughout their lives.
“For me, this isn’t simply about launching another nonprofit,” Peck says. “It’s about creating something that can make a real difference in someone’s life. If one student-athlete realizes they don’t have to suffer in silence, if one athlete reaches out for help instead of giving up, then this work matters.”
That philosophy is captured in the foundation’s message: Train the Mind. Win the Game.