Peyton Rieger was scrolling on Instagram one day at the beginning of her senior year of high school, hoping to see the latest posts on her feed. While going down the endless social media rabbit hole, she found a post that caught her attention — an ad for Morgan’s Message.
The foundation was started in remembrance of former Duke lacrosse player Morgan Rogers, who passed away in 2019. The purpose is to de-stigmatize mental health struggles amongst athletes, and it hooked Rieger instantly.
Rieger, then just 17 years old, had been obsessed with sports for as long as she could remember. Before she became a starting fixture on Temple’s Field Hockey team, she was a two-sport star at Kingsway Regional High School in Woolwich, New Jersey.
Rieger also dominated the wrestling mat and earned all-conference honors playing field hockey, but there was something else eating at her. She struggled with her own mental health and found solace in a group aimed to help athletes who were similar to her.
“So I really kind of had my first experience with mental health and sports and just constantly being down on myself and the mental exhaustion that came from it,” Rieger said. “I was like, I’m a big athlete and a mental health advocate. I was like ‘these two things combined two of my passions.’”
Rieger went to work looking to start a chapter of Morgan’s Message at her high school, but the topic made people uncomfortable. Rieger found that because of how sensitive a topic mental health can be, very few people want to speak up about their struggles, and it was hard to get people to join.
She often walked around during her lunch period convincing her classmates with snacks and cookies to join her club. As time went on, it became easier to recruit people by creating small groups that made everyone feel comfortable and at home.
“I tried really hard at making good icebreaker questions,” Rieger said. “Going into smaller groups and just finding better ways to ease into conversation. Asking someone who maybe I knew was a little bit more comfortable talking about it, to come to a game and speak about an experience, then someone else can relate to it and speak up about it.”
When she got to Temple, Rieger noticed Temple had formed a chapter of Morgan’s Message in April 2022. Temple Women’s Soccer defender Natalie DeMasi was the driving force to starting the chapter, serving as founder and president.
Rieger knew she wanted to get involved at Temple before she even stepped foot on campus. She sent a message to DeMasi to show interest and talk about her experiences in high school.
DeMasi and Rieger clicked immediately. Once the year was in full swing, Rieger wasn’t only one of the fastest-rising midfielders on the field hockey team but the vice president of Temple’s chapter of Morgan’s Message, helping aid DeMasi’s efforts in the mental health realm.
“So over the summer, I started to look at E-Board members,” DeMasi said. “ I’m pretty sure the exact day she DMs me, and I saw it, and I was like, ‘Oh, well, this is perfect’. She said she already had the Constitution written up from her high school, and I was like, ‘I didn’t even know I needed that.’”
Two years later, and Rieger is doing the same thing she did in high school — promoting mental health to athletes. She works hand in hand with athletes to open up at their pace, while also working with Temple’s health services.
The group has grown since Rieger stepped foot on campus two years ago, but there is still hesitancy from some of the student athletes to get involved.
“It’s really inspiring for me,” said Temple Field Hockey midfielder Lina Neilson. “She’s someone who really cares about others and puts others before herself. It really shows through Morgan’s message and how she really cares about spreading the importance of mental health and especially to student athletes.”
As the organization’s popularity continues to rise, DeMasi has taken a backseat to let Rieger take the reins. Morgan’s Message became prevalent because of DeMasi’s three years of leadership,but she was looking to pass the torch in her last year of college.
Rieger has embraced the topic throughout the years and knows that she will have her work cut out for her when DeMasi departs in May. However, the importance of the issue matters most to her and making the student-athletes feel human comes first.
“I think that as athletes, we put additional pressure on us from, maybe parents, coaches, ourselves and teammates to just constantly be performing at high levels,” Rieger said. “I think that this place provides a space that we’re like we experience it too, and it’s okay to experience it. How can we find the good in what you do? You’re human first, and athlete second.”
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