University of Richmond alum’s wellness app provides a check-in for athletes
ALUMNI
August 18, 2026
By Sandra Shelley, senior writer, UR Now
One of John Armistead’s most overwhelming moments at Richmond came right at the beginning, when he left his home in California to play Division I lacrosse with the Spiders
“I went from having sports and life come relatively easy to me to being thrust into an extremely competitive environment that demanded the best from me every single day,” Armistead, a 2022 graduate, said. “It was an entirely new mindset that I wasn’t prepared for, especially as a freshman who didn’t know anyone and was so far away from home.”
Almost a decade later, he is helping athletes at Richmond and across the country cope with an array of mental health challengesl. This fall, the app will be available for free to all Spider student-athletes
“You’re never going to have a perfect road, but I wanted to make sure that Richmond student-athletes are then given the proper tools and techniques and strategies for what to do in when the harder moments do come,” he said
“Built by Athletes. Designed for Athletes.”
Armistead created AthletesTogether with Lucas Ragen, a childhood friend who played baseball at James Madison University. Both had coped with not only the day-to-day toil of playing Division I sports but the physical and psychological challenges of injury — in Ragen’s case, a career-ending one
“We were given a lot of these generalized applications like Headspace that are good for general meditation and for the wider population, but not very athlete-specific,” Armistead said. “We wanted to find a way to bridge that gap and create something that athletes wanted to use and that would support them.”
Armistead — who played a year of football as a graduate student at the University of Southern California before becoming a software product manager for Hewlett-Packard in Austin, Texas — created the app to be accessible, engaging, and fun. The goal is to help athletes address problems before they build to a crisis
The app starts with a daily check-in that helps users self-assess their mental readiness, followed by a warmup. From there, they select games and other re score
For example, in Cognitive Reframe, student-athletes can enter a negative thought they are having about school, practice, or relationships. “We walk them through the steps of how to reframe that statement in a way that’s positive and actionable,” Armistead said
The games can be completed in under two minutes. “You do a couple of these things, and you feel better and more prepared to compete,” he said. “You’re priming yourself for the day.”
The app’s pre-game meditation has proven especially popular with users. While the app is targeted at those competing at an elite level — they tested it with over 100 athletes, many in the NFL, MLB, MLS, and other professional leagues — it’s also available to recreational athletes
Giving back to Richmond
Richmond Athletics staff psychologist Rachel Turk is one of the experts who provided consultation for the app. She plans to use it as an extension of her work with Spider student-athletes during the fall season
“Student-athletes are a unique population,” she said. “The fact that this app speaks their language will help people to connect and find it useful. I could not be more excited that we are bringing on AthletesTogether for our student-athletes this year and cannot wait to see the positive impact it has.”
Armistead remembers being in their place, juggling workouts, travel, and games with his physics and computer science homework
“Athletes have to show up with the same mentality and the same preparation on a day-to-day basis, and that grind really ends up getting exhausting,” said Armistead. “I realized that I not only felt better, but I started playing better, when I started to really acknowledge the mental health side of things.”
While at UR, he served as an ambassador for Morgan’s Message, a nonprofit dedicated to eliminating the stigma surrounding mental health of student athletes, and hosted support meetings and workshops on campus. Turk, who began working with Spider Athletics in 2019 as its first dedicated psychologist, is one of the people to whom he turned for support as a student
“During John’s time at UR in our athletics department, he was always an advocate for student athlete mental health,” Turk said. “He made an effort in particular on his team to open up conversations around mental health and be a role model.”
Armistead enjoyed the camaraderie of the lacrosse team, where he was a defensive midfielder, and returned to campus this fall to watch a game
Now, through his app, he continues supporting the Spider community as an alum
“Being a student-athlete at Richmond was one of the most difficult, yet rewarding, experiences of my life,” he said. “Being surrounded by world-class professors and peers while also competing in Division I athletics was an overwhelming experience at times, but it taught me some of the most important lessons I’ve carried with me since.”
