Women's Club Lacrosse Team Hosts Mental Health Awareness Tournament
By Michael Kelly On a sunny April day, the women's club lacrosse teams from Drexel University, New York University and Stony Brook University came together to play and to raise awareness about mental health issues facing college students. The tournament, played this past Saturday, was the brainchild of Stony Brook team captain Alex Imperato. Besides playing lacrosse, the 21-year-old junior works with the Center for Prevention and Outreach (CPO) as a peer educator. CPO offers a range of services and raises awareness about where students can turn to if they are looking for help, dealing with four main topics: depression, sexual assault, substance abuse and wellness. Imperato said trying to help people and playing lacrosse have always been two of her passions, so organizing a tournament to promote awareness of mental heath issues was an obvious choice for her. "It combines everything I love," the engineering chemistry and psychology double major said. Imperato said that she thinks there is a stigma that athletes do not get depressed, something she credits to their outward appearance. By using an athletic venue, like a lacrosse tournament, to bring awareness to mental health issues, Imperato said she hoped she could reach out specifically to the athletic community. "It reaches who we want to get a hold of," she said, singling out female athletes. "It lets people know it’s okay to go through a tough time." According to a 2004 survey by the American College Health Association, 14.9 percent of college students met the conditions to be clinically depressed. Imperato personally knows that someone can go through a tough time and come out okay if they get the proper help. She said that she dealt with a multitude of personal issues during her first year at Stony Brook, but that she was able to get through them by getting involved with a CPO program called CHILL, which works to spread awareness specifically about issues related to mental health, and by being a member of the club lacrosse team. "Lacrosse made a really big difference for me, to be able to keep playing the sport I love," she said. According to Imperato, she is not the only one who appreciates the chance to keep playing on a team, even if not at the division one level. "We’ve had so many girls on the team who have told they’ve been so happy they got to keep playing on a team." While the idea for the tournament was Imperato’s, others were eager to help her out. "I am honored that we are having this event here," said Kate Valerio, a health educator for the CPO for Prevention and Outreach. Valerio said that depression and mental health are usually topics that people are tentative to discuss openly, and that a lacrosse tournament was a great venue to dispense information about the topics in a normal, non-confrontational setting. CPO had a booth, manned by CHILL peer educators, covered with informational fliers and t-shirts at the day-long event. "There are Stony Brook students who are involved, like the lacrosse team, and that’s a great way to raise awareness," said CHILL member Sasha Khotimsky, a 20-year-old junior psychology major. Drexel captain Allie Moppert, 23, said her team jumped at the chance to come play in the tournament. "We were free, so we said, 'Let’s go,'" the nursing major said. "Being a nurse, I see a lot of unfortunate things dealing with college kids." While the day was designed to raise awareness for mental health issues, there still were games to be played. NYU breezed through the morning round robin play, easily defeating both Drexel and Stony Brook. In the other round robin matchup, Stony Brook fell to Drexel. In the playoff rounds, Stony Brook defeated Drexel by a score of 7-6 for their first victory of the season, before falling to tournament champion NYU by a score of 8-5. With the first year of the tournament a success, Imperato is already looking forward to next year. "This is hopefully going to become an annual event," she said. |
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