In the fall of his junior year at Indiana University, distance runner Jackson Bertoli was suffering from deep depression. He couldn’t voice the words to his girlfriend, so he texted her as she sat beside him: I’m feeling suicidal.

She encouraged him to seek professional help. He did an internet search and soon had an appointment with Chelsi Day, Indiana athletics’ newly hired director of counseling and sport psychology. Bertoli met with Dr. Day weekly, talking about his nagging injuries and the crushing wait for “the cool...