- July 29, 2026
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Wrestling for one year had destroyed Ocoee High School junior Emma Cain’s mental health. It’s a great sport if the athlete has the right mentality. But if not, it can be very toxic, she said.
Being required to meet certain weight classes almost triggered an eating disorder. Cain began to question her self worth after she won her first match but never won another after that.
She put her heart and soul into it.
Every loss weighed on her heart.
If she wasn’t practicing, she was outside running, lifting weights — her life revolved around wrestling.
At the end of her freshman season, she suffered a knee injury. She began to spend an hour every day in Ocoee’s athletic training room. It soon became a safe space, a home away from home — so much so that she decided to become an athletic trainer.
She went to the AT Olympics, which is a bunch of games for athletic trainers, and there, her life changed.
Cain heard about Morgan’s Message, a nonprofit dedicated to helping student-athletes’ mental health. Hearing someone tell her she was more than her sport reinforced her sense of worth.
She became determined to bring the same feeling to others.
Cain became an ambassador for Morgan’s Message and started a chapter at Ocoee High at the beginning of last school year. Her mission is to help spread the message and bring light to the mental health battle many student-athletes are experiencing.
Morgan Rodgers, the nonprofit’s namesake, played lacrosse all her life. It was all she ever knew and all she ever dreamed of doing. It was her identity. Duke University recruited her to play Division I lacrosse.
Rodgers was a lively, lovable person until her sophomore year. She suffered a terrible knee injury that resulted in years of physical therapy and surgeries. She was determined to do everything she could to get back on the field. Through PT, she presented a strong front, but she really was suffering in silence, struggling with the feeling of losing control of her life.
She was fighting the battle of her life.
Rodgers died by suicide July 11, 2019. She was only 22.
While the world lost Rodgers that day, it gained a worldwide organization — Morgan’s Message — dedicated to sharing her story and helping others who are experiencing similar emotions.
At Rodgers’ funeral, her teammates, family and friends saw many butterflies across the lawn, sparking the idea of the butterfly logo for the organization.
They created the motto: Human over athlete. It stands for sharing the message that athletes are more than their sport.
“Your sport doesn’t define you,” Cain said.
Cain didn’t allow wrestling to define her anymore.
After her mentally draining freshman wrestling season and recovering from the knee injury, she returned to the mat for summer practice. She also picked up a weightlifting barbell and discovered her love for lifting.
Cain loved the weightlifting team and its people. She finally felt she found her place. All her life, she had been searching for a sport that truly felt like “hers.”
She was attending wrestling and weightlifting summer workouts last year but hurt her ankle during wrestling practice.
Cain took it as a sign to let the sport go.
That led Cain to quit wrestling and begin weightlifting as a sophomore and continue it into her junior year.
“Just being able to move my body in that way is such a gift, and I really am so thankful, because it’s done so much for me,” she said. “It makes me so confident. … It just really brought my spark and it built me rather than tearing me down.”
Cain’s experiences help her as she shares Morgan’s Message to the Ocoee community.
After becoming an ambassador for Morgan’s Message, she began the chapter at Ocoee for the 2025-26 school year with her friend and Corey Karbowsky, the JV football coach and assistant girls wrestling coach, sponsored the club. The group’s monthly meetings start with a fun interactive activity, include lessons about mental health and end with another activity.
In addition to the meetings, the organization also hosts dedication games, during which Cain will spend a practice with a team to introduce the athletes to Morgan’s Message and share bracelets and butterfly stickers. Cain also gives a speech at halftime, sharing the message and advocating for mental health.
Cain prioritizes finding different professional athletes to share in the mission and message. She said the most challenging group is male athletes, because many are less open about struggling.
“Guys are so much more defensive about it, and it’s actually men who have the higher depression rates,” she said. “I try to use a lot of male figures as mental health role models (such as) Caeleb Dressel and Michael Phelps.”
Cain said athletes are the primary target for their meetings and lessons, but it is open to others and especially former athletes. Mostly track athletes attend the meetings but track season begins in November and goes until May, which limits their timeframe.
The first meeting had about 30 people. Cain said it was great to see the turnout and inspired her to continue. Numbers then dropped to about 10 to 15, and in the winter only five to eight.
“Maybe they’re uninterested because it’s mental health and that’s something a lot of people don’t take seriously,” she said of the smaller numbers. “They’ll laugh it off because it’s an uncomfortable thing. If you don’t respect it and you don’t give it that vulnerability that it deserves, it can be scary.”
But those who have thanked Cain for everything she has done have reinforced her confidence to continue. She has had many people come to her and speak to her as a safe haven. Each of those moments warms her heart to know they trust her and find comfort in her voice.
“It’s just the small things that make it worth it,” she said. “When a coach comes up to you and says, ‘Hey, I had three parents come up to me saying they’re really glad that you did this (their) kid really hear this.’ I’m so grateful for it and that just makes a world of a difference.
