Owensboro native and Kentucky Wesleyan women’s assistant soccer coach Anne Stauffer will be recognized at next month’s 2024 ESPYs for her significant contribution to mental health in athletics, particularly for rural athletes. Her impact has earned her the regional Billie Jean King Youth Leadership Award.
The honor is part of ESPN’s Sports Humanitarian Awards, sponsored by Penn Entertainment. It intends to celebrate the impact of athletes, teams, and sports industry professionals using sports to make a difference in their communities and worldwide. This marks the 10th year for the awards.
“The Billie Jean King Youth Leadership Award celebrates and honors young people who are using the power of sport as a catalyst for change and making a positive impact on society,” ESPN said in a release.
Stauffer said being the recipient of the award fills her with hope for the future.
“There are many gaps in services for people in rural communities in general, but especially with mental health resources and the stigmatization surrounding mental health in rural and athletic environments,” Stauffer said. “So, it feels hopeful to receive this award because it means this gap in services is being recognized, and through this recognition, more people can help contribute to creating more open-minded and empathetic atmospheres.”
She elaborated on the power of sports and how it extends well beyond the playing surface. She quoted Nelson Mandela, saying, “Sports can create hope where once there was only despair.”
“Sports have the ability to unify communities, transcend cultural barriers, and inspire people to work through adversity,” she said. “Sports can also be used as a vehicle to teach and instill values such as resilience, integrity, empathy, and so many other life skills.”
Stauffer enjoys combining her social work and coaching experience to serve others in a way she never was. Through her studies, she’s equipped herself with tools that help promote social justice life skills.
“My coaching career has provided me the platform to use these tools to help decrease stigmatization surrounding mental health in sports and to support the implementation of social justice life skills in sports environments,” she said. “My experience of being a competitive athlete for most of my life in a rural community has instilled in me resilience, courage to name, examine, and question unjust systems, and an intense passion and dedication to help others through my role as a coach, which is why this award is so meaningful to me.”
The up-and-coming coach played collegiately at Transylvania University and Centre College before attending Ohio State University for graduate school. During her younger years, she played on the U.S. Youth Futsal U14, U16, and U18 national teams.
Stauffer works in the University of Kentucky’s Sport Social Work Research Lab and will begin her PhD at UK this fall.
