Varsity Softball Hosts Second Annual Mental Health Matters Game

Varsity softball took home the win against Glenbrook North (GBN) with a final score of 9-8, this Tuesday, April 26.

This year the varsity softball team’s current record is 11-7. Christina Rosin, one of the coaches on the varsity softball team is very proud of the Wolves so far. Rosin talks about where the team was at the beginning of the season and where they are today.

“Our season has been going really well, we started off a little bit timid but since then we have been learning how to play at the varsity level and picking up our intensity and our focus. When we started playing conference games, that is when we started to peak this season. We put everything together our pitching, hitting and offense and right now we are tied technically for first but we are really in second place in our conference,” Rosin said.

This game revolved around the club Mental Health Matters (MHM). The club was founded by senior Maggie Burns, who is one of the captains of the team. Many teenagers suffer from all different kinds of mental health, so she wanted to let those who are suffering from any type of mental health that they aren’t alone.

“Mental health is something that affects everyone and is such a stigmatized topic that people have to hide behind their emotions and can’t share them. It’s something that affects me a lot because I struggle with OCD, anxiety and depression so that’s how I created the Mental Health Matters Club. I want people to know that it’s ok to not be ok and to bring awareness to this very important topic,” Burns said.

To represent the club, the Wolves put up a variety of decorations including posters, balloons and streamers. The colors of these decorations were white and green since green is the color that represents mental health.

“To raise awareness for mental health we put up posters that said end the stigma and mental health matters and put them around the stadium. We also decorated the stadium in green and white because green is the color that represents mental health. [With] Mr. Leavenworth, the announcer, we put together mental health statistics about teenagers and read them every half inning so we could spread more awareness to everyone,” Burns said.

Throughout the game, the Wolves and the Spartans went back and forth competing for the lead. The Wolves had strong defense which kept the Spartans from scoring.

Mariko Ishii, senior, another captain of the team, talks about the good parts of the game which led the team to victory.

“During the game, I hit a two-run home run which gave us the lead. At the time we were up three, but the bats didn’t stop then,” Ishii said.

Come support your varsity softball team at their next game on Monday, May 1st at Niles West!