The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/418536
had always dreamed of wearing the winged helmet, so he walked on to the football team that fall after a solid career at Ann Arbor Pioneer High. Four years later, he capped his career as a part-time starter on the Wolver- ines' 11-2 Sugar Bowl team and made key plays in a 40-34 upset win over Ohio State. Zack Novak, meanwhile, might have been mistaken for a football player when he first arrived on campus. He was stocky, built like a linebacker and considered either too short or too slow for Division I bas- ketball, depending on the position mentioned. One was a small piece of the puzzle for the football program; the other helped change the culture of Michi- gan basketball. Both have left their mark and are destined for even bet- ter things, the only other similarity between them being Chicago as their post-athletic starting point. Heininger overcame a severe bout with depression in 2008 to gradu- ate with honors, earning a job with a large investment firm right out of school. Nearly two years ago in Feb- ruary, he received a call from Barb Hansen, an athletic counselor of his at U-M, to present an award at a Depres- sion on College Campuses Confer- ence and speak on his experience. "That's when I realized a lot of peo- ple aren't doing what I did — getting my life back together," he said. "In- stead they were suffering in silence, blaming themselves and not getting better. That was the first time I had spoken about it publicly." One of the university doctors heard him and insisted he come speak to a group in Phoenix. Someone from the NCAA heard him there and invited him to address that organization in Indianapolis. "It snowballed from there," Heininger said. And it continues to roll. Heininger left his high-paying job to return to Michigan this year, helping with the football program and the depression center. This past spring, the NCAA offered him a grant for mental health and wellness of student-athletes — a collaboration between the depression center, the school of public health and the athletic department. The $50,000 award was the impetus for Heininger to move back to Ann Arbor and work on the project. AthletesConnected.umich.edu, a tool for the mental well-being of student-athletes, was born. "It's for all 31 teams," Heininger said. "We offer drop-in support groups where athletes from all sports can meet each other … a lot of them have the same stress so they can talk about life, be connected to other people. That's what it's about." His group is now vying for a $3 million grant from the university to continue the work, offered as part of the Global Challenges for the Third Century initiative to commemorate U-M's bicentennial in 2017. Novak, meanwhile, arrived in the Windy City about the time Heininger was leaving. In typical, self-deprecating fashion, he'd call his own story much less interesting than Heininger's. He's now employed at one of Chicago's major consulting