Bristol Reporter

Peek into the Royals dugout this season, and you'll see several new faces on the coaching staff. But the manager, bench coach and new pitching coaches are not the only changes you'll see.

You'll also be witnessing history.

Melissa Lambert, the Royals' director of behavioral science, will be the first person in her role to have a seat in the dugout in Kansas City's effort to increase mental health resources for their players and staff. She will also be the first woman to be on the Major League on-field staff in Royals' history.

While her spring has been busier than ever, she's been able to reflect on what that will mean as Opening Day nears.

"I've gone into this thinking, 'Work hard and earn the respect and trust,'" Lambert said. "That's the goal. The more you get into it, you realize it's not just about the here and now, but setting up for the next generation. The current college students coming in, the young girls who can look at this and say, 'Well, I want to do that someday.' How do we set the tone and create an environment for the next generation?"
In 2018, Royals senior director of behavioral science Ryan Maid met Lambert at a Major League Baseball mental health conference. At the time, Lambert was working for the Dodgers as a mental skills coach. Maid was just beginning to build his department. When the time came to expand, Lambert was the perfect candidate. 

Not only does Lambert have an athletic background as a soccer player at Eastern Connecticut State, but she's a licensed professional counselor. Lambert earned her Master of Education in clinical mental health counseling from Springfield College in Massachusetts in 2009. Before baseball, she was a therapist who worked with student athletes, a youth sports coach and a consultant on child development and performance psychology. She is certified in therapeutic crisis intervention.

"Melissa has the training, background, experiences to meet players where they're at based on their needs and wants," Maid said. "When our players need services, whether that be on or off the field, she can provide that. There's not a lot of people in baseball who can do that."

Maid hired Lambert in 2020 as the assistant director of behavioral science, focusing mainly on the Minor Leagues. Several of the same players she worked with at the Royals' affiliates are now in the big leagues with her.

"I'll never be embarrassed to talk about mental health," Royals pitcher Daniel Lynch said. "I've been an open book about it. It's healthy. And I, for one, am glad to have her around."

First baseman Nick Pratto added: "If you're taking care of your mind, it's going to trickle into how you process the game and how you come prepared to compete. Having those tools and skills are very useful. It amplifies what you do physically."

Manager Matt Quatraro met Lambert at the Winter Meetings after the Royals hired him. During his interview process, he emphasized the importance of psychological resources for players and staff. At each stop in his coaching career, he learned how invaluable someone like Lambert can be for players who are often bombarded with external pressures during the season.

"You've heard me talk about letting the air out and taking some of the pressure off these guys," Quatraro said. "Some guys just need somebody to talk to, and a lot of guys want to keep those things, whether it's personal or performance-wise, away from their position coach because that's a different relationship.

"Having someone that can be a good listener and have strategies for how to steer them is really important." 

The following feature story was written by student Tierney Hogan of the Eastern Sports Information Office in 2019 after Lambert was hired by the Los Angeles Dodgers as a sports psychologist.

Melissa Lambert is a former student at Eastern Connecticut State University from Montville, Connecticut. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in Psychology. Lambert was a full-time student athlete playing soccer for all four years here at Eastern. While being dedicated to soccer, Melissa was able to manage her grades earning above a 3.5 GPA every year.
,
After speaking to Melissa's former soccer coach, Christian D'Ambrosio, he describes Lambert as "one of our most consistent, hard workers, not only on the field but off the field too in the weight room, nutrition wise, and in off season." Nutrition and fitness testing was very important to Lambert and Coach D' Ambrosio says that she was one of the pioneers behind getting the team on a more strict fitness schedule. A schedule that the current soccer team at Eastern still uses now. Coach D' Ambrosio continues to talk about how team-oriented Lambert was and says that "she had that intrinsic drive that you look for in a student athlete."

Playing soccer at Eastern helped Lambert grow into the person she is today, and her Coach said that it definitely turned her into a strong leader. Lambert uses the skills and growth that she found on Eastern's soccer team in her current career with the LA Dodgers.

After Lambert landed three jobs following finishing her master's program at Springfield College, she was offered a job as a sports psychologist with the LA Dodgers. Melissa Lambert is now the EAP which is the mental health therapist and the mental skills coach for the team. In Lambert's first few jobs she took the clinical route of psychology, but she always knew she wanted to end up in sports psychology. As just a junior in college, for one of her athletic questionnaires it said, "In 10 years, I could see myself" and Lambert's response was "as a child psychologist." It is amazing how accurate her goals were and how she kept striving to achieve them.

As a EAP and mental skills coach for the LA Dodgers, some of Lamberts responsibilities consist of being a resource and building relationship with the players and the coaches. She helps them balance their nutrition and helps them with being away from their families and loved ones for long periods of times. Lambert explains it as taking care of "anything from clinical needs, mental illness, from crisis situations to drama." What made this job so appealing to Lambert was the fact of helping a bigger population. She wanted to be able to "impact them as humans first, athletes second" and she says that's the coolest part.

A person who acted as a mentor to Lambert at her time here at Eastern was Eastern's Chair of the Psychology department, Dr. Carlos Escoto. Dr. Escoto Melissa says, was one of her most challenging professors but "he gained my respect immediately." When talking to Escoto about how he remembers Lambert he says, "she's just dedicated, focused, she's always been particularly mature, very easy to talk to, her passion for athletics and training just kind of complimented everything else." Lambert continues to keep in touch with Escoto maintaining their close relationship.
 
After asking Lambert about how she feels about her successful thus far she says, "I never look at it in that sense of success or accomplishment… I recognized late that it wasn't just about hitting milestones and building experience, it was really the substance in between." This truly shows Lamberts humbleness she has towards her achievements in her life and that says more about a person than anything else.

Melissa will hopefully be visiting Eastern during this coming Fall semester to talk to our student athletes about mental health and self-worth. Coach D' Ambrosio mentioned having Lambert talk about "being a part of something that's maybe bigger than you and embracing that and striving to be the best you can become to help the team be successful."

Original source can be found here.