You can feel the tension on the court as the clock counts down, and it seems as if every move you make could be the wrong one. You’ve done the play a hundred times, yet you can’t seem to focus, an experience some athletes seem to face.
Athletes are pressured every day to increase their skills and physical strength in order to see the best results on the playing field, but Ankeny High School has taken a different approach to get their athletes ahead of the game. Ankeny High School hired Codee Myers of Myers Mental Performance to serve as the official mental performance coach for the Ankeny Hawks athletic department.
“She’s very kind and understanding and I think that is really helpful because in basketball and in track it’s kind of all mental,” sophomore Lilly Buckley said. “I feel like she has helped me overcome a lot of mental stuff, especially in track and basketball, especially when I had slumps and really bad shooting days I can just go talk to her and she instantly gets me in a better mood.”
Nerves are normal, especially in athletics, but for some people it becomes more than the butterflies flying around in their stomach.
“There’s a good thing about being nervous. It kind of gets the juices flowing a little bit, but if it’s nervousness to the point of paralysis, then that’s not healthy,” athletic director Mike Bakker said. “There’s so much pressure on our students to achieve at high levels in everything they do, and if we can help take away some of that anxiety and have students realize that regardless of win or loss, I am a human, I am a person, to me, [that] has probably become the most important part.”
Codee Myers embodying the Hawk way
Myers has a lot of experience with athletics, especially at Ankeny High School. Myers played basketball and volleyball for the Hawks before graduating in 2017.
“I wish I would have had somebody to talk to when I was an athlete myself, and me being a little younger too, and kind of associated with the whole sports role just recently and still involved in it, I think helps a lot as well. I’m able to connect to you guys a certain way, and just building that trust and relationship, and then be able to see you guys blossom on the mental side and get stronger is really rewarding,” said Myers.
While serving as a mental performance coach for all of Ankeny’s athletic teams, Myers has also been coaching girls’ basketball since 2021. She heads up the JV team while assisting the varsity team, and uses her mental performance coaching to help her team.
“The reason why I coach is because of the students. It’s just self-fulfilling, and just being able to be involved is rewarding to me too, and then being able to incorporate this service that I have now into the schools is amazing as well,” Myers said. “I think I’ve grown into loving leading them and mentoring [them], because I was also just in your shoes, and I understand and want to be a positive impact for you guys throughout this stage of your life.”
Myers is known for her positivity and good energy as a coach, person, and colleague at Ankeny High School.
“I think she takes great pride in making sure that people are treated in a way that they would look back and say, that was really fun. I enjoyed that experience, even though maybe we didn’t reach all of our goals. It meant something to them. And I think that’s how she portrays herself as a coach,” Bakker said.
As a mental performance coach, Myers has the opportunity to meet with different teams throughout the year, and for each team this may look different.
“In golf last year I was so in my head, I really beat myself up and I held myself to a high standard and it was just a bad mental place to be last year but this year I’ve been so much better. I’ve been using some of the things and tricks that Codee has talked to us about in the only two sessions that we’ve had so far but it’s still made a big difference,” sophomore Aubree Moeller said.
Finding the balance between coach and mental performance coach
Many of the athletes who have worked with Myers seem to adore her, as they speak about her with bright smiles on their faces. Moeller has had the opportunity to not only be coached by Myers in basketball, but encountered her as a mental performance coach as well.
“She’s just amazing, she’s the sweetest person I’ve probably ever met, and I was so excited because after basketball season I was like ‘no more Codee’ and then golf starts and I had totally forgotten she had signed that contract,” Moeller said. “My golf coach was like, ‘we’re gonna have some mental performance on Tuesday,’ and I was like, ‘that’s Codee,’ and I was so excited. I was counting down the days and as soon as I saw her I ran up and gave her a big hug and she was like, ‘Oh hi I miss you so much’ and she’s just a light, she’s amazing.”
Being a Hawkette basketball coach, Myers is able to work with students throughout games and during those moments of mental struggle. Yet, Myers explained how sometimes that can be hard to balance.
“There’s a line, me being coach and there’s me being mental performance coach,” Myers said. “Me putting the girls on the line because they missed some layups or something, it sucks, because I have to punish them, but then it’s like, now they’re not going to like to run, or they’re going to maybe be nervous now to shoot a layup and miss.”
Although, this is not to say that her team is left without help when she is not in the mental performance coach role.
“She knows that I was hard on myself so her being my basketball coach helped because she knew when I was having a rough day, she knew what to say and reminded me of positive thinking and to keep my nerves down so I play better,” Buckley said.
What students can expect when they meet with Myers
Myers sends out an email to all of the coaches before the season starts informing them of the services she can provide. It is then up to the coach and her to find a time she can meet with the team in small groups. Students can also meet with Myers individually.
“On the individual basis, it’s a little different, because we can kind of dive into who you are and why you feel these pressures, or whatever it is,” Myers said.
Every individual thinks differently, and may benefit from some strategies more than others, but a general tip Myers tells students is to distract themselves. She explained to not, “eat the whole pie at one,” and to focus on one or two things that you can control in the moment.
While some students may be working on getting ‘locked in’ others may be improving their self-talk.
“We worked a lot on pregame nerves, because that was one of my biggest things, and writing down all the negative thoughts and then rewording them into something positive and thinking positively about it instead of negatively,” Buckley said.
Most people would agree that without practice it is more difficult to get better at an activity, well this can be applied to improving one’s mental performance.
“If you’re going to the weight room once a week, are you going to get stronger and faster? No, if you’re going three to four times, five times a week, yes, you’re going to start seeing those changes. So anyone that I work with, I always say, ‘Hey, yeah, we can chat. We can meet once a week, or whenever I come and talk to you guys. But you guys have to hold yourselves accountable and stay disciplined with it in order to see that growth and that change when I’m not there, but I’ll give you the tools to start doing it,’” Myers said.
Myers has had the chance to see the impact of her job as students practice the tools she helps them learn, and she compares what a first appointment may be like to one after a few appointments.
“The first appointment, it’s like, throw up everything,” Myers said.
She saw the same student later. “She is so good, and it’s so cool to see because it’s for her, right?” Myers said. “This work, I’m trying to help guide, but if you don’t put in the work, you’re not going to see the results and with her specifically, she’s a way different athlete now.”
Where the position started and where it can go
Myers is the first mental performance coach to be hired by an Iowa high school athletic department. Using her masters in sports psychology she makes plans to work with with teams, coaches, and individuals who want to increase their mental performance. Bakker was a part of the team that hired Myers.
“One of the things I’ve looked at was, how can we help our athletes, our students, handle anxiety, daily anxiety, mental preparation for activities and clubs. How have we helped them with that? And so I emailed Codee, said, ‘hey, I’d like you to come in and have a conversation,’ because I knew what her background was and what her degree was in,” Bakker said.
Myers put together three different packages a gold, silver, and bronze. She and Bakker talked about what would be possible, and what may need to wait.
“We just kind of started putting something together, knowing that it was going to be fluid, that it’s going to change over time, because there’s really no model for this,” Bakker said. “No one really has this in place at their schools right now, at the high school level.”
This is the first year that Myers has been Ankeny’s mental performance coach, and coaches are still being informed of the opportunities that their teams have.
“Beginning of the season, I try to be like, ‘Hey, let’s get in two or three times.’ I recommend the beginning of season, middle of season, the end of season, at least three, and then if you need me in between there, let’s do it,” Myers said.
Starting something as new as this leaves a lot of unknowns, but it seems that Bakker and Myers are working together to figure out a plan that will work well for all involved.
“Because Codee’s working with our students and our student athletes. I want to be able to help her grow in such a way that it benefits our students and it benefits her, and the only way you can do that is if both are growing together and learning and meeting the needs of both groups,” Bakker said.
Mental health services seem to be recognized and discussed more as people utilize them, this applies to the world of sports psychology as well.
As Myers’ business grows she will have the opportunity to work with more schools. Bakker explained how he supports her vision and is, “on board with that, as long as it doesn’t diminish what [she’s] doing here for our kids.”
Athletes who work with Myers undoubtedly reap the results in and out of their sport.
“After working with Codee, I realized, just run, I’m doing this for fun, I have to remember I’m doing this for fun and think more positive about it. I love track and it’s a great time and I’m not going to disappoint anybody,” said Buckley.
Many athletes hold a deep passion for their sport, they put in countless hours of practice and may even be with their team more than they are their owns siblings.
“I think that the biggest thing is it’s not who you are. But how do you guys figure that out? Because I was once in high school and once a student athlete myself, and that was who I was, my identity,” Myers said.”So figuring out what else you like to do and what you’re passionate about outside of your sport is very, very important, and I would push [that] on all you guys. Because again, it’s not forever and it’s not as heavy as it feels in the moment, long term.”
This story was originally published on The Talon on May 12, 2025.