Next-Level Messaging

This story originally appeared in the 14.7 Issue of GoDuke The Magazine – February 2023

Motivation, confidence, intensity, focus and mind state — the five mental muscles psychologists believe are essential for athletes to perform their best. When honed and strengthened with as much care and work as put toward the physical side of their sport, athletes can take their abilities to the next level. 

This holds true for Duke women’s lacrosse attacker Anna Callahan. In her fifth season with the program, Callahan is off to the best start of her career for the 11th-ranked Blue Devils. She ranked second on the team in points with six goals and five assists through her first three starting assignments. The 11 points were three more than she had in 19 games as a junior and matched the total she had in the first six games of 2022. 

“I think Anna’s had a really nice trajectory here,” said head coach Kerstin Kimel. “She’s had a really nice steady incline into a really large role on our team. I think that all along Anna’s strengths are her incredible work ethic and her leadership, and I think both of those qualities have propelled her into a role as a fifth-year senior where she not only has great command on the field, but also off the field with her team."

While Callahan has put in incredible work on the field as well as in the weight room, it might be her efforts off the field in relation to mental health, both hers and others, that have allowed her to take her game and leadership abilities to a higher level. 

Callahan, however, is not singularly focused on just her own mental well-being. In fact, it’s her empathy and love for others that fuel her success. While Callahan is keenly aware of the need to take care of herself mentally and physically, she also constantly advocates for student-athletes and coaches to recognize the value of being vulnerable and the importance of being open about mental health. 

“I think being vulnerable and being open is also something that helps me play a little bit looser and play a little more free,” said Callahan. “I have people on the team I talk to about things I struggle with. Whether that be teammates, coaches or Dr. (Shawn) Zeplin. You name it, I just think it’s nice to get those things open and off my chest because that will help me play a little more free.”

Callahan arrived at Duke in the fall of 2018 and battled injury throughout her rookie season in 2019. She played in 10 games and finished with one assist. The next season, the Glenwood, Md., native started all nine games, scoring 11 goals and dishing eight assists, before the season came to an abrupt halt due to the covid-19 pandemic. 

Stuck at home away from friends, the sport and teammates she loved and having unexpected free time on her hands, Callahan heard and felt the need for a mental health advocacy group for Duke student-athletes. Months later the pilot for a campus ambassador program of Morgan’s Message was born. 

“Me and Dr. Zeplin, who is the head of the behavioral health department for athletics, decided student-athletes needed something to just kind of collectively talk about the struggles and the hardships that we go through as athletes and as students at Duke,” Callahan said.

With the concept in hand, Callahan took the next step of naming the organization. It was a no-brainer in her mind to honor former Duke women’s lacrosse player Morgan Rodgers who lost her life to suicide in July 2019. 

“My team had lost Morgan, who was a friend and a teammate to us and that was really really difficult, so I always thought naming it after Morgan would be something I would really really appreciate and wanted to do just because Morgan spent a lot of time at Duke and was very close to people on the team and at Duke itself,” Callahan said. 

Callahan reached out to Morgan’s parents and learned of the non-profit organization they were starting — Morgan’s Message — and out of that conversation the first campus ambassador program of Morgan’s Message was born.

Fast forward just over two years, Morgan’s Message has 2,290 ambassadors on 901 campuses across 42 states and in Canada and England according to the Morgan’s Message program website. 

“It’s amazing (to see how this program has grown),” Callahan said. “It’s really hard to put into words how special it’s been to see something I had a very small part in getting started grow into something that so many people seek a lot of advocacy through. I think that’s one of the things I love about Morgan’s Message … it allows people to get involved in the student-athlete community in a way that’s very beneficial for their peers and for themselves.”

Callahan’s involvement in Morgan’s Message has influenced her in so many ways and in turn has equipped her with tools to help others. Over her time at Duke she’s learned the practices best for her wellness — physical, emotional and mental. 

As a person with ADHD, Callahan understands it is important to stimulate herself with something interesting to keep her mind working. She likes to journal, work on puzzles and Sudoku or play games on her iPad that put her mind to work. But perhaps what gives Callahan the most joy is being around people she loves. Simply put, she just cares so much for others.

Her love for her teammates is one of a multitude of reasons Callahan is a part of the Duke women’s lacrosse leadership council. This council is formed from a pair of leadership surveys, which quantify qualities of a leader, taken by each player. Callahan, who scored high in each of the past three years, led the way for all Blue Devils this year. 

“This year she scored the highest on the team and I think the areas she scores the highest in are that she cares so incredibly much for her teammates and that she has great relationships with her teammates as well as her coaches,” Kimel said. “I think through the work that she’s done with Shawn Zeplin and Morgan’s Message she’s really matured into a fulltime leader for our program and for the athletic department as a whole.”

Callahan was recognized for her work with Morgan’s Message, earning an ACC Top Six for Service Award last year. She has participated in a variety of panels, including at the Atlantic Coast Conference Health and Safety Summit last year, is the mental health liaison for the Student-Athlete Advisory Council, is an active member of Athlete Ally and a part of the Native American Student Alliance at Duke.

The rewards she’s experienced can’t be put into words for Callahan, but she knows it has helped her become a better leader, a better player and a better overall person.

“I think (my work with Morgan’s Message) has allowed me to learn how to connect with a multitude of different people, whether that be in Morgan’s Message itself directly or in the outside community,” Callahan said. “I also think it has allowed me to become more empathetic and more understanding of people’s lives and I think that’s really important.”

Callahan credits the support from Zeplin and the university, for allowing her to flourish on and off the field.

“I have a lot of great outlets,” Callahan said. “I have a lot of great people supporting me and I’m very very fortunate to be at a place like Duke where mental health is a priority. So I’m very appreciative of the coaches I have and the support system we have at Duke and beyond.”

Zeplin has been arguably her most consistent outlet on campus. She first started meeting with him as a freshman in 2019 and now sits down with him weekly to talk through a variety of topics. 

“I think I am his longest standing patient at Duke,” Callahan said about how she and Zeplin have grown at Duke together. “It’s kind of cool to see our relationship grow from patient to therapist to now where it’s also a working relationship where we try to tackle the stigma of mental health together while also talking about things I continue to struggle with.”

On the field, Callahan is exuding a level of confidence and comfort to match her intensity. Her mental muscles are fine-tuned and that’s great news for the Blue Devils and bad news for opponents.

“Anna is rarely if ever someone who tries to play outside of herself,” Kimel said. “She knows what she’s good at and she sticks to that. That’s maturation. That’s having a better understanding of and acceptance of you and your strengths and also an understanding you don’t have to be someone you’re not. That’s a big part of the leadership piece (she brings to our team).”

So, while Callahan and the Blue Devils flex their muscles against their opponents over the next few months, let’s all take a cue from Callahan and use perhaps our most important muscle — the heart — to show we care and that it’s okay to ask for help from others.

“It’s okay to not be okay,” Callahan reiterates. “It’s okay to seek help. It’s okay to lean on people around you. That’s something I had to learn as a freshman, that it’s okay to lean on the other people around you and that you’re never a burden. People always have time for you. Everybody needs help with something.”

Dedicated to sharing the stories of Duke student-athletes, present and past, GoDuke The Magazine is published for Duke Athletics by LEARFIELD with editorial offices at 3100 Tower Blvd., Suite 404, Durham, NC 27707.  To subscribe, join the Iron Dukes or call 336-831-0767.