AUBURN, Ala. – As a high school basketball player in Southern California, Dr. Adrian Ferrera discovered his calling by observing Shaquille O'Neal's struggles from the free-throw line.
"I was in eleventh grade," Ferrera remembered. "In a psychology class, I found out about sport psychology. Shaq was with the Lakers, and couldn't hit a free throw to save his life."
Shaq's accuracy from the charity stripe gradually improved, from 48 percent his first season in LA to 62 percent in his seventh.
"I heard about him working with a sport psychologist," Ferrera said. "I thought, 'How do I get to do this?'"
Nearly two decades later, Ferrera serves as Auburn Athletics' director of counseling and sport psychology. In the same way Auburn coaches seek to put their student-athletes in the best position to succeed physically, Ferrera works with the Tigers as a certified mental performance consultant.
"One of the things I hear is, 'Oh, you're a shrink,'" he said. "Why would I shrink people? I feel like I empower people and help them understand their true self, so they can perform at their highest level in sport and life."
Ferrera develops performance enhancement workshops for teams and counsels individual student-athletes on mental health and performance issues.
"The biggest part is going at their pace and meeting the student-athletes where they are," he said. "Making sure we have an evidence-based approach that's backing what we're doing with a team or an individual."
Student-athletes' willingness to engage in counseling can be the first step in improving their mental wellness, Ferrera says.
"I've learned in grad school, and I think it really holds true, the goal of the first meeting is to build a relationship so we have a second meeting," he said. "Once a student-athlete commits and crosses the 'first meeting barrier,' that is a huge piece of success, especially with so much stigma around mental health. For someone to have the courage to actually reach out and ask for assistance is a big step."
Ferrera's four seasons playing college basketball at the University of La Verne in California helps him relate to student-athletes.
"That's usually the first question I get when I talk with athletes," he said. "'Hey, what sports did you play?' Where'd you play? What level?' That's always the icebreaker, and it allows them to see that we have something in common, or that I may understand them a little more since I've been in it."
When Ferrera played his last college game in 2006, social media was emerging. Now, it's ubiquitous.
"We all have a cell phone or a computer in our hand all the time," he said. "I think that takes away from their focus or highly divides their attention. Although social media allows us to stay connected and informed, it can also cause us to be disconnected from reality."
Ferrera urges student-athletes to remember that a potential game-winning shot, whether it's made or missed, represents a tiny fraction of their life span.
"That 3-pointer doesn't define me," Ferrera said, extending his wingspan to make his point. "This is how long my life is; that was one 3."
Combining his love of athletics with a desire to help others, Ferrera considered a career in coaching while working on his dissertation, but the call to sport psychology won out.
"It fuels me," he said. "I like to see growth, and I like to see people develop. We always say some percentage of a sport is mental, but how often do we work on it? I have the privilege to explore the mental side with athletes and coaches every day. To witness an athlete learn a new perspective, implement it in their sport or life, and then receive the benefits of those changes is pretty special."
After earning his bachelor's in psychology, Ferrera earned a master's in counseling from Boston University and his doctorate in sport and exercise psychology from West Virginia University.
His first job after graduating from West Virginia was as a cognitive performance coach for U.S. Army Special Operations soldiers at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
"It was a privilege to work with our military," Ferrera said. "I knew sport psychology with athletes. I had to figure it out for soldiers. That was a new humbling challenge for me, which was awesome and interesting. I got to be a part of giving back to a community of people who protect our freedom. Those men and women have so much courage and bravery."
Along with his wife, Pascha Adamo, and their son and daughter, Ferrera arrived at Auburn in October.
"Auburn has been warm in weather, and warm in people," he said. "The Southern hospitality, I've definitely received that."
In a world that sometimes reveres athletes as superheroes, Ferrera provides a place that allows them to be more like themselves.
"Student-athletes don't have to keep the mask on and act like they're invincible all the time," he said. "That's part of my job. Empower people to be honest and true to who they are. I help them to understand their emotions and their responses to everything that's going on within their lives. I'm here to help our student-athletes and coaches grow."
What Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy means to me:
"I think Dr. King's message is timeless. Some of the things he talked about many years ago are still happening in 2019. His foresight, his vision was way ahead of everyone else. Hope, kindness, peace. We're still struggling with that as humans.
"In a world where everything is so fast-paced, a lot of people are unsettled. So how do I make sure I have that calm about myself? Extend hope and reassurance that this time period can and will pass. A lot of people are hurting. Hurt people tend to hurt people, so how can I extend some grace or kindness to someone else? Those are some things that I'm aspiring to do.
"For whatever position I'm in, for however long I'm here, I just want to make sure I'm a good person and I leave the place better than how it was before. I think Dr. King did that. He changed things. He opened our eyes to a new perspective. 'Let's look forward to this for our children and grandchildren.' He set a framework."
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer
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