Sports peers help Izzo, Michigan State navigate campus tragedy

Michigan State’s basketball team, like much of the campus, was in shock when a gunman shot and killed three students on February 14, 2018. And like many sports teams that have experienced tragedy, it fell to coaches and support staff to try to help the athletes understand and cope with what had happened. Michigan State fell back on advice it receieved following some of the other eight college campus shootings that have happened since Virginia Tech in 2007. Athletic director Bill Beekman has said that he knows the protocols for dealing with such events within the university, but had no prior experience with the intercollegiate athletic programme until the shooting happened. On the evening of the shooting, he convened the athletic department’s senior staff to devise an emergency plan which informed whether matches continued or were cancelled, and appointed a secretary to offer bulletins on social media channels, so everyone connected to the programme could stay informed.

Beekman said his department focused on gathering as much information as possible so that it could inform its actions. Clinically, it was like preparing for a game, albeit one without a schedule. “I’m a lawyer, an accountant and a banker,” he said. “I’m not a mental health professional, but we’ve got some of the best people in the world dealing with things like this. Most importantly, the coaches were right on.” It may seem counterintuitive to some, but several of Michigan State’s teams resumed normal activities as soon as possible following the shooting. The men’s basketball game against Illinois, scheduled two days later, took place. While the university postponed the campus’s formal remembrance services, many athletes saw playing their sport as a chance to soothe some of the hurt felt and to represent the university in a way that honoured the dead.

Greg Harden, a Michigan State academic leadership and performance consultant, says returning to competition can be beneficial in helping athletes heal. He cites the examples of New Orleans Saints football team’s after Hurricane Katrina and Boston Red Sox’s 2013 World Series win following the Boston Marathon bombings. “People are going to need time to grieve and process… but certainly returning to competition can be very helpful, a way of saying, ‘We’re not going to let this beat us. We’re going to be resilient,’” Harden said. “To have a correlation that you rose above this horror to win a championship, or to win something, it’s going to positively impact those who were recovering from the trauma. It’s almost reinforcing this idea of beating back adversity.”

More than 1,000 members of the Michigan State community were invited to gather for a Thursday night memorial service at the basketball arena, where students and alumni held candles and stood silent in honour of the victims. A flower-arranged Spartan logo was placed on the spot where the shooter had taken his life. Among the notable Michigan State personnel to attend was Tom Izzo, basketball coach, who has been praised for his support of the students since the tragedy occurred. Generally, athletic departments’ ability to ensure the safety of athletes and staff has improved markedly since Virginia Tech, thanks in large part to the bolstering of campus emergency response units in recent years. This includes responses to natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes and wildfires. As a result, many colleges and universities across the country now have specific emergency procedures in order to minimise harm to their populations.



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