Why the Bryce Young Foundation focuses on mental health

Bryce Young’s first youth football camp in Charlotte was replete with everything you might expect: a lot of excitable kids screaming, boxes of Bojangles, tough touchdown catches that turned into TikTok celebration dances.

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But smack dab in the middle of a loud Saturday morning, there was a quiet moment, a guided group meditation. It lasted about two minutes. The directives to the young campers were simple. Sit up straight, close your eyes and focus on your breathing.

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For Young, the second-year quarterback of the Carolina Panthers, the main goal of Saturday was to ensure that the kids who attended his free camp had fun. But there was an additional purpose to the 300-kid camp, too: to plant a seed about the importance of nourishing your mental health.

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Why was mental health central to Young’s camp?

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Because it is central to Young’s life.

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“It’s just something that’s really important to me,” Young told The Charlotte Observer after the three-hour camp on the Johnson C. Smith field, shortly after taking an individual photo with every camper to punctuate the day. “Something that’s near and dear to me. My dad, my aunt, my grandfather — they were all psychologists, all in the mental health space. It’s just something I feel like we could all relate to. … We all have struggles. We all have battles. We all have stuff we gotta deal with, stuff we gotta juggle, responsibilities. It’s one message that can kind of hit everyone, which is something that always spoke to me.”

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Young, whose foundation is called the Young 9 Foundation, grew up surrounded by mental health professionals and educators. His father, Craig, was a marriage and family therapist for decades in California, where Bryce grew up. Bryce’s mother, Julie, is a special education teacher.

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Young studied psychology at Alabama. Social psychology piqued his interest. The Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 overall draft pick said in college he developed a really good routine meditating, and that while he’s honest about not meditating “as much as I wish I did” at the moment, he intends to be more strict about his mindfulness plan in the future.

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“Growing up, you hear a lot of times that it was either/or: Do you want to worry about this and take the time to (tend to your mental health)? Or do you want to do your responsibilities?” Young said. “Knowing that there’s a correlation between all that is important. You won’t be able to be your best unless you’re the best version of yourself.”

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Just like a quarterback needs his teammates — about a dozen of whom were in attendance on Saturday, including Adam Thielen, Taylor Moton and Raheem Blackshear, as well as offensive coordinator Brad Idzik and team co-owner Nicole Tepper — anyone needs their friends, their family, their community to reach their potential, Young said.

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Young’s father agrees. Craig Young has seen that on both sides — as a professional psychologist but also as the dad of a son who’s attracted tons of attention for his talent as a football player. He said that he hopes Saturday’s message goes a long way.

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“Yes, Bryce is amazing; he’s talented, he’s blessed,” Craig told The Observer. “But there are a lot of kids who could be in a similar position, or would be able to reach their potential, if they were placed in a position to have all the advantages: have great schooling, have access to mental health support when they need it.

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“Sometimes kids don’t get mental health until it’s forced upon them or it’s too late. So we want to be in a situation where we’re normalizing it with our kids.”