HAMPTON ROADS, Va. (WAVY) — A Hampton Roads teenager is bringing awareness to mental health, while he practices his favorite hobby — racing.
Atley Wiese got hooked on NASCAR at a young age — the only one in his family, apart from his grandfather.“It was really my grandfather and watching NASCAR with him that really got me into that stockcar world,” Wiese said.He begged his parents for a go-kart. They were hesitant, but finally bought him one when he was nine. You can now see him zooming around Langley Speedway in a limited late model car in the NASCAR Advanced Auto Parts weekly series.“It kind of started off as a hobby, but as I began doing it more and more, it just started to become something that I thought, ‘Hey this may be more than just a hobby,’” Wiese said.And that hobby gained new meaning in 2023 when Wiese became a campus captain for the nonprofit organization, The Hidden Opponent, a group dedicated to mental health awareness and education. Kobe Bryant was one of its first supporters.“In the world of sports, I mean, you’re doing something with so much pressure and so much intensity at such a high level, along with being a student athlete and having to balance so many things,” Wiese said. He’s an advocate both on and off the speedway — sharing guidance from psychologists, and even his own experiences, hoping to touch other student athletes experiencing stress.One of his favorite sayings: “Control the controllables.”“In sports and life, we worry about so many things that we can’t control,” Wiese said. “When we control the controllables, control all the factors that we have a hand in, then it can relieve so much stress and so much anxiety when it comes to everything that we do.”
Wiese plans to continue racing for as long as he can. His next race is at Langley Nov. 1…