Utah State freshman head coach Blake Anderson speaks to the media during Mountain West media days, Wednesday, July 21, 2021, in Las Vegas. (Sean Walker, KSL.com)
Estimated reading time: 3-4 minutes
LOGAN — On Monday afternoon, Utah State football coach Blake Anderson publicly acknowledged that his son, Cason, committed suicide in February and called for mental health awareness.
in a six minute video released by Utah. State, Anderson spoke about the tragedy and its impact on his family.
“Our lives changed forever on February 28, 2022, just six months ago,” Anderson said in the video. “Cason went to a place that was so dark that he didn’t want to do it anymore, he didn’t want to be here anymore and he took his own life.
“A piece of me and our family is gone and will never come back. Questions are all we have left. Why didn’t I see it? How could I have helped more, what else could I have done? I mean, we never met.” he let none of us know. There were no red flags, no warning signs, he always made sure to tell you he was fine.”
Anderson went on to encourage those who are “hurt” or “dealing with dark thoughts” to “reach out” to others for help.
“There are people around you who want to help you,” he pleaded. “There are people that God has put in your life who want to carry your load. They would rather carry your burden than carry your coffin.
“Mental health is important. I encourage you if you or someone you know is suffering, to step up, speak up and do whatever you can to help them find the resources they need. Remaining silent is too costly.”
the death of Cason came two years after the death of Anderson’s ex-wife, Wendy, who died in 2019 after a battle with cancer. It’s a period of his life that Anderson says was very hard on the family, but he has come out of it with a positive outlook. The death of her son only added to that pain two years later.
During Monday morning’s news conference, Anderson announced a mental health initiative that his team will begin this week.
“We would welcome the fan base and the valley to join us over the course of the next week and a half, especially this week, as we promote mental health awareness,” Anderson said. “This is something that our staff and our players have had a lot of conversations about. It’s something that there is clearly a passion for within our building.”
On Saturday, Utah State and UNLV will wear green ribbons on their helmets, and coaches will wear ribbons on their jerseys to promote mental health.
For next week’s BYU game, the state of Utah will partner with the Hilinski Hope Foundation, led by Mark and Kim Hilinksi, who lost their son, former Washington State quarterback Tyler Hilinksi, to suicide. in 2018.
In the meantime, the state of Utah will be posting content on social media and inviting others to join.
“We’ll be releasing testimonials throughout the week. We’ll also be releasing resources, and really as we get closer and closer to the games, we’ll just (offer) support for anyone who might be watching,” Anderson said.
“We’re going to encourage the fanbase to come together, repost, retweet, comment and really start the dialogue for our fanbase in the valley and really anyone nationally that’s watching.”
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