The first “Stick it to Stigma” lacrosse game, an event to raise awareness and spark conversations about mental health, will be played against Illinois at 3 p.m. Saturday at the IU Recreational Sports Field Complex.
“As far as I know, there has not been a lacrosse game played for mental health awareness,” team President David Haggerty said in a press release. “In fact, I don’t think that any sport has attempted to support mental health awareness.”
IU worked with U Bring Change 2 Mind, the IU chapter of the national program Bring Change 2 Mind, to sponsor the game.
Bring Change 2 Mind is an advocacy and research group for mental health awareness.
Mick Pence, senior defensive midfielder, said Haggerty does a lot of extra medical research with BC2M.
“They have this thing called the College Toolbox Project, which focuses on male athletes and the stigma in discussing mental health,” Pence said.
Pence said combining BC2M and lacrosse has been a brain child of his.
“He was trying to think of how he could make those two worlds intersect — this lacrosse team and that organization,” Pence said. “He talked with some of the higher-ups to use one of our lacrosse games as a staging ground, like a benefit to raise awareness, and they got behind it, bought us special jerseys.”
The jerseys will be lime green, BC2M’s official color.
Right now the team is 5-4 with recent wins against Miami of Ohio and Pittsburgh before beating Vanderbilt and Tennessee, Pence said.
Despite the rough start of the season, including losses against top-ranked teams Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech, Pence said the team is fully behind this game.
“He approached us about the idea, and we were all behind it,” Pence said. “We’ve been forming this big social media campaign, taking some video testimonials.”
Haggerty said the team has supported this idea and are enthusiastic about Saturday.
“I thought that my coaches and teammates would have hated this idea because of the stigma, but they welcomed it with enthusiasm,” Haggerty said in a press release. “It’s time everyone starts thinking and acting this way. Talking about mental health is not a sign of weakness.”
