Four and a half years after their 21-year-old son took his own life, Mark and Kym Hilinski stand before yet another audience of young athletes with whom they need to share their story, no matter how much it hurts to tell.
Among the 100-odd people seated in Utah State’s auditorium-sized football meeting room is a head coach who earlier this year lost a son to suicide. And one player who attempted suicide and lived. And another who thought about killing himself just this week.
It’s mid-August, but Mark and Kym long ago shoved time into a blender. In the past three years they’ve done 200-plus presentations like this—a mix of PowerPoints and anecdotes, mission statements and video clips, empathy and stats, all addressing what The New York Times has called a mental health “crisis that is only now getting serious attention.” Tyler Talks, they call them.
