While watching his son play in a recent Babe Ruth League game, David Yukelson did the unthinkable. He cheered a player on the opposing team when he came to bat.

"Some of the parents on this side go, 'What is this about?,'" said Yukelson, Penn State's sports psychologist. "I say, 'Look, I hope Tommy hits a grand slam, because he's in the situation. I hope he does well, even if it costs our team the game.' "

Some of the parents couldn't figure it out. One even got up and left. Yukelson just had to smile, because he knows that although there are winners and losers at every level of every sport, it is how both respond to wins and losses that is important.

Yukelson is in the business of helping student-athletes deal with the pressures that exist on and off the playing surface. In his 16th year at Penn State, Yukelson believes he has formed bonds with players and coaches that give the university's 29 athletic teams an asset that few universities have.

A big part of Yukelson's job is speaking to teams, both before and during the season, about setting goals and getting mentally prepared to tackle them. He also meets with several athletes -- maybe six or seven per week -- on an individual basis. Some want to work on specific mental keys that will help them on the field; others just want to talk to someone who isn't a coach.

"Who would be a better proponent for student welfare who's not a coach, but understands?" Yukelson said.

"Yuke" gets cell phone calls and e-mails from student-athletes. Many see him for years, and the relationships grow from sports psychologist-athlete to a couple of friends sitting around talking. A picture of Penn State wrestler Pat Cummins, signed "Goofball" hangs framed in Yukelson's office.

"When we were freshmen, he came in and talked to the team, and they gave us a little story on him, what he was here for," said Cummins, who finished second in the heavyweight division at the NCAA tournament this past season. "When we heard the name 'sports psychologist,' it was a little weird. But as soon as he started talking to us ... he's a laid-back guy, he's funny, just good to have around."

Yukelson sometimes sees athletes on the recommendations of coaches, and whatever they want to remain confidential stays that way. Sometimes, though, it can be beneficial for both the coach and the student-athlete to have a triangular dialogue with Yukelson.

"If they're sharing with him something they think they heard, and understood it in a certain way, he helps all of us get back on the same page again," said Penn State wrestling coach Troy Sunderland.

Yukelson is available to all of Penn State's athletes. He has more contact with some teams than others, which often depends on the coaches, but he regularly sees about 30 student-athletes from a number of Nittany Lion teams.

"I don't understand how other universities do it," said Dr. Jennifer Carter, who serves as sports psychologist for more than 900 athletes on the Ohio State University's 35 teams.

Carter, who has two full-time assistants, is more of a clinical psychologist than Yukelson, whose education was a mix of psychology and kinesiology. He earned his bachelor's degree at the University of California-San Diego, then worked on his masters' at Florida State, where he had an internship with coach Woody Woodward and the Seminole baseball team.

"I think that probably helped me more than any other class that I had," Yukelson said. "I learned about what the demands are on an intercollegiate student-athlete, what some of the practical concerns were."

It was in Tallahassee that Yukelson developed the hands-on approach he uses today. His is a familiar face at practices, where he will often talk with student-athletes for a few minutes afterward.

"I kind of view him as another coach almost," said Penn State pitcher Clayton Hamilton. "He has a good knowledge of the game, that's for sure. We'll talk about what's going on, what's working that day, things that weren't."

Understanding the relationship between mind and body is vital to athletes. The body has to relax to perform well, and the mind must help the body relax. Clinical psychologists can help student-athletes' mental outlook, but sports psychologists have the advantage of seeing the athletes in their own environment.

"I'm not coaching, but I need to know something about their training schedules," Yukelson said. "And how their body adapts to periodization of training."

Yukelson likes to break down the primary way he helps student-athletes into two areas: mental preparation and mental focus.

Preparation involves making the mental transition from class to practice and setting purposeful goals for what athletes want to accomplish in practice or during games.

"It's making confident, goal-oriented statements of what you want to occur, as opposed to what you're afraid might go wrong," Yukelson said. "There's also skills to teach breathing and relaxing under pressure and thinking confidently before you go out to the site."

Mental focus is "how you use your mind to visualize yourself performing." Yukelson talks about how athletes can stay mentally tough during competition, particularly when things aren't going well.

"You can't allow frustration of things that are going wrong interfere with your confidence," he said. "You've got to enjoy the battle. You can't always control winning, but you can control the fight."

That's why you won't find Yukelson in tears if his son's team loses a Babe Ruth game. The outcomes of any particular contest concern him far less than athletes' reactions to those outcomes. He has worked hard at earning the trust of coaches and athletes in his 16 years at Penn State, and has learned a lot about himself along the way.

"Like any coach or athlete, you mature and grow over years of experience," he said. "I'm much more familiar with the coaches and the athletes, and I think I've grown and matured in interventions."

A former president of the Association for the Advancement of Applied Sports Psychology (AAASP), Yukelson is disappointed more universities don't have full-time sports psychologists, but understands that many athletic departments are hindered by budget restrictions.

"It has to come from the top; the athletic director really has to be supportive of it," Carter said. "I don't know how you get that to happen if it's not the case."

Ohio State athletic director Andy Geiger and Penn State athletic director Tim Curley are in the minority of ADs who believe the benefits outweigh the costs. Though he said he tries to remain "in the background," Yukelson has been a comforting, familiar presence for countless student-athletes, helping them balance an ever-growing list of daily challenges the average student will never know.

"It's invaluable," Sunderland said. "He's somebody they can talk with, a sounding board. They know they can confide in him."

Or visit him during the offseason, or after they have graduated.

"When student-athletes and coaches allow you into their lives, and every day is a little bit different, it's a really a very creative and challenging type of job in a positive way," Yukelson said. "When somebody wants to be the best they can be and raise the bar in a certain way, it's very gratifying."