Ralph Fawaz shines light on mental health with nonprofit organization

Apr. 15—LARAMIE — Ralph Fawaz knows just how much mental health can impact an individual on a daily basis.

Fawaz, who was the University of Wyoming's starting punter in 2021, lost his job to grad transfer Clayton Stewart last fall. Fawaz had to watch as Stewart earned all-conference honorable mention honors after finishing No. 33 in the country with an average of 43.75 yards per punt.

Fawaz came to UW as a walk-on in 2020 before earning the starting job the following year. His performance in camp earned him a scholarship from head coach Craig Bohl, who also works directly with the punters during practice.

"I wanted originally to go to college for soccer," Fawaz said. "And then I thought, 'Well, do I want to run seven miles a game, or do I want to take three steps and kick? It's a lot easier route. Soccer wasn't really in the picture. I had a few opportunities, but I just didn't think they would have worked out."

Fawaz wasn't actively recruited out of high school in Cache, Oklahoma. He ended up sending his highlight tape to roughly 60 schools, only hearing back from two of them.

"I told them I was willing to walk on," Fawaz said. "Two coaches answered. Northwestern, who told me my ACT wasn't high enough to walk on because they needed a 30. Coach Bohl was the second one that answered. I said, 'You know what, I might as well drive down there and take a look.'"

After winning the starting job in 2021, Fawaz earned Mountain West freshman of the week honors twice and averaged 42.5 yards per punt. He finished with 17 punts of over 50 yards and had 24 punts land inside the 20-yard line, according to UW's website.

The highs of being granted a scholarship and earning the starting job eventually clashed with the lows of losing the job to Stewart this past season. The emotional toll started to impact Fawaz's performance on the field.

"I had some things going on and wasn't all there," Fawaz said. "It was bad faith. It really took a toll on my punting that second year. Now, we've figured it all out."

Making a difference

Fawaz often finds himself describing what a punt is to some of his closest childhood friends.

Though he was born in the United States, Fawaz has dual citizenship in his parents' home country of Lebanon. Growing up, Fawaz and his parents would make the trip to Lebanon every summer.

Fawaz's childhood sport was soccer. He didn't start kicking footballs until his freshman year at Cache High.

"I was always playing soccer, and the football coaches had seen me and heard about me playing soccer, so they came up to me and said, 'Hey, we need a kicker. Can you kick?'" Fawaz said. "I said, 'Well, I don't know.' And that's how that got started.'"

Fawaz was his high school's placekicker for all four years but didn't start punting until his junior season. Now, Fawaz is fighting to get his old starting job back at a Division I college.

So far this spring, Bohl has Stewart with the slight edge over Fawaz on the depth chart.

"Competition always brings out the best in people," Bohl said. "I thought Clayton had done a good job for us last year. I can tell you this, we'll always watch everything, and competition is always good. But when you have a guy who's consistently done some things, we had significant improvement in the punting game.

"I appreciate Ralph's attitude. I'll watch that. But right now, Clayton's done a better job than Ralph."

The adversity of going from walk-on to starter and back to backup has motivated Fawaz to get involved with something outside of football. Last year, Fawaz started a nonprofit organization under the name Tele-Hope.

"It's basically a student-athlete mentorship program," Fawaz said. "What's been nice is we have a lot of our athletes who are wanting to sign up and willing to sign up. We work with local kids in the middle school and high school.

"The whole point of it and why it started is, you see so many kids nowadays where something happens to mom or dad. These kids lose hope, and they lose their dreams. Well, we've got people who can relate. For example, on our football team, we have four guys who their mom has passed away. I can't mentor a kid who's had a mom pass away like they can. Who knows how to go through it better than these athletes?"

Fawaz sees the organization as a win-win for both parties involved. On Tele-Hope's website, Fawaz cites concerns about rising suicide rates for both youth and college-age students.

By pairing the two demographics together, Fawaz's goal is to have that relationship benefit both the mentor and the child or young adult. Fawaz also knows what type of impact and influence a college athlete can have on a young and impressionable kid.

"Another reason I included athletes was because kids look up to us," Fawaz said. "They think we can spin the world on our finger just because we represent Wyoming."

Starting his own nonprofit organization has fueled Fawaz to try and win his job back this fall. But above all, Fawaz knows there's no hard feelings between the first-team and second-team punter, regardless of who's listed first on the depth chart.

"My first goal is to be the best teammate I can be," Fawaz said. "Whatever happens with the punting situation, I want to be there. I've been in Clayton's spot, where you miss-hit punts, and it's horrible. I want to figure out how I can help Clayton if he's the starter, or how can I help the other guys on the team.

"... Being there for the guys, it's just something that's important to me."

Alex Taylor covers the University of Wyoming for WyoSports. He can be reached at ataylor@wyosports.net or 269-364-3560. Follow him on Twitter at @alex_m_taylor22.