Formally known as student-athlete mentors, SAMs are college athletes trained to help their teammates cope with life off the field. Joe Gieck, Virginia's director of sports medicine and professor of education, co-founded the program with a U.Va. He found that athletes at every level of competition endure intense pressures other students don't face.
Studies show that athletes drop out and flunk out at a higher rate than other students.
Athletes are more prone to binge drink - often to celebrate success or console themselves over failure. Gieck said if not for the SAMs program at Virginia, at least two student-athletes in the last nine years would have died from alcohol poisoning. But because SAMs are trained to spot it, and to take action rather than look the other way, people immediately received medical assistance. Gieck said Virginia SAMs also have spotted suicidal tendencies in several athletes, and helped them receive counseling. The SAM program can work both ways.