Great to be back on the field with @SballStrikes in the Super 72, after a 7 week break to recover from an injury. Proud of my team for finishing top 16 of 50 teams in our first 16U tournament. Feeling good as I continue working back to full health. @jillienwaldron @mnilles3 @strydetraining @D1Softball @RecruitMatador @LineDsoftball @PrepSoftball @NextPitch_SB @DirectRecruits

I love doing these Monday Night Clinics with @NUSBcats! Lots of great information about the game offensively and defensively. Also very exciting to meet the new staff! Thank you so much for these camps! @katedrohan @CarylDrohan @jordynrudd63

Happy to be back at @NUSBcats Monday night camp! I love learning new hitting and fielding skills to help improve my game! Go Cats!💜 @CarylDrohan @katedrohan @SballStrikes @lilymaas31

It was awesome to be back on the field at SS with my @SballStrikes 16U teammates! We battled, made it to Sunday and got knocked out by the tournament champs at the Triple Crown Super 72. Check out my highlights! @coach_haileym @OHSPantherSB @CoachNeubauer_6 @triplecrownspts @tagupSoftball @K25_Baseball

Years ago I was a licensed professional counselor in Ohio. At the time, I was a part of a landmark partnership between a local community mental health agency and a school with disproportionately high incidences of substance abuse, sexual and physical abuse victims, the (new at that time) phenomenon of cyber bullying, and serious mental illness / legal issues. Most clients had unstable home lives which didn’t allow for them to get to the agency’s office, so I was placed in the school to create easier access to care. This is commonplace today and schools actually employ therapists, but at the time it was rare. It is suicide prevention awareness month so I will tell a story, while honoring the ethical boundaries of confidentiality that are so crucial to the counseling profession: I had a crisis appointment one day - a quiet, sweet, newer student to the school was mandated to see me. She had left a note to her morning bus driver. It said she did not want to be here anymore. I was tasked with assessing for risk of suicidality. What I loved about sports was the unique pressure of every practice and game, and the challenge of stepping up to respond. Mental health crisis work requires the same qualities. No conversation is ever the same, but you trust yourself and your training. And you completely lock in to the moment. This was a day my agency and the school were able to step into a hopeless place and prevent tragedy. Not all days go that way. There weren’t many warning signs on the surface of this situation. When I asked this young lady more about life, family, friends, and why in particular she confided in her bus driver her answer was striking. “It’s the only person that notices me.” Her bus driver greeted her every morning with kindness and looked her in the eye. She had the sense in classes, the hallways, and at home that she was a burden and was better off not being around. All too often, I’ve come across this feeling in wonderful people around me. It’s the kind of thing we can easily miss. Talk that alludes to the idea one doesn’t matter, is a burden, or feeling they don’t have a place where anyone really sees them. It’s rare for it to be written down in a note and handed to a bus driver today. Our world has shifted. It’s even more important today to see people around us, REALLY see them. When I coach, I try to acknowledge every person by name each day. I try to note something positive every single day, even though my personality tendency would be to highlight what needs to be better. The point is to “see” every person, because maybe they don’t feel seen anywhere else. When I left college coaching, it had become clear there was a vast increase in successful people fighting lonely internal battles in both athletes around me and coaches/administrators/staff. My time had massively shifted to more time wearing my mental health hat than my “what will help us win” hat. I got texts or people popping into the office that I often didn’t know all that well, but had the courage to say “hey don’t you have a background in that mental health stuff?” A “bus driver” moment like that fateful day years ago. We have to understand in the sports world surfaces are deceiving. The point isn’t to panic about mental health and search for crisis in everything. But to be aggressively present with people around us when it’s often inconvenient. Pick up “notes” left behind and do something about it like that amazing bus driver did that day. But also be a person in whatever role you have that sees people and makes them feel they matter. Sometimes people are in a place in life that someone has to believe that for them before they can believe it themself. If this message finds you in the place you are questioning your worth - let me be clear that we need you here. The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline provides free + confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, across the U.S.

Proud of how my @SballStrikes team competed @triplecrownspts Super 72!! We finished in the top 16 out of 49 teams!! We lost to the team that won the championship. Here are my highlights! @THEWOWSB  @SBRRetweets  @SoftbalAmerica @D1Softball   @MidwestPremierS  @LineDsoftball @PrepSoftball  @USASoftballREC  @RecArenaMain @TopPreps  @ExtraInningSB  @jillienwaldron @ydsoftball @tagupSoftball @coach_ruechel  @coach_haileym @CihlarSteve @KaylaLombardo11 @NextPitch_SB @SportPrepX @DirectRecruits @IHartFastpitch

First 16u tournament of the season with @SballStrikes playing in the Super 72 tournament this weekend. Proud of my team going 3-2 against tough competition. Here are highlights! @triplecrownspts @tagupSoftball @LineDsoftball @RecArenaMain @themaineventsb @jimdonovan45

So proud of my @SballStrikes team making it to Sunday at the Super 72 tournament—our first tournament of the season and my first games in 2 months! Felt great to be out there. Thank you Coach @jillienwaldron for helping me get physically and mentally ready after the accident. My location, spin control and mental stamina were just where I needed them. 11 KO’s, 6 looking, ERA of .955 and 3 for 3 wins. Thanks to Scott @strikes_club for helping my bat be ready too. 2 doubles and put it in play most times even after getting sick in the middle of the tournament. The hard work continues! Here are some highlights of this weekend. @carletonsoftba1 @DePauwSoftball @DenisonSoftball @ChicagoSoftball @SwatSoftball_ @WASHUSoftball @ExtraInningSB @OPRFSoftball @coach_ruechel

Excited for this weekend’s camp @DePauwSoftball. Looking forward to working with Coach Gaby and her staff and team. Working hard to get back in shape. With @jillienwaldron @strikes_club @coach_ruechel @OPRFSoftball @SballStrikes

Week ✌️of RISE🏑 Fall Travel ✅