Dryden hosts first annual “You Matter” game

Over the past decade, mental health awareness has grown exponentially in the sports realm from the high school to the professional level. One local team has taken a new initiative to recognize those battling mental health issues.

On April 18, the Dryden boys lacrosse team held the first annual “You Matter” game in honor of former assistant coach Matt Williams, who committed suicide last year. The idea to hold this event came from the players, as they wanted to both pay homage to their former coach and spread the word about such a worthy cause.

“It was heartbreaking for the entire team because he was so important to all of us,” said assistant coach Don Davis. “You get hindsight 20/20, you start thinking, ‘Could I have done more?’ Those are all questions that we want to head off now, and that’s why the ‘You Matter’ movement was born from some of these kids like Vinnie [Passalugo] on our team to get out ahead of this and raise awareness. That way, kids who are going through something will feel confident enough to speak up about what they’re going through and get the help they need.”

“I think it’s very important for our lacrosse program, and not even just us, but schools around us,” Passalugo said. “There’s a lot that people have to deal with that others don’t know about.”

Williams was not just a big part of the Dryden community, but also to surrounding towns, as well. In addition to helping out the Lions lacrosse team, he was a teacher in the McGraw Central School District and ran the Big Cats Lax club lacrosse team, featuring multiple players from Dryden and Cortland. Head coach Dominic Barillaro Sr. has fond memories of Williams during his time with the program and in his personal life.

“He had a very bubbly personality,” Barillaro said. “He knew the sport, loved the sport. As soon as we let him into this program, he was basically ‘pedal to the floor, 100 miles an hour,’ and worked great with the kids. When we used to live in Marathon, he would come to our house and he’d be like, ‘Oh, I’m just here for 30 minutes.’ Next thing I know, it’s three and a half hours later, and we’re not necessarily just talking about lacrosse. He immediately became part of the family, and losing him definitely took a toll.”

Barillaro knows first-hand about the relationship between student-athletes and mental health. He played lacrosse at SUNY Morrisville from 2009 to 2012, and he also has noticed the ever-growing trend of mental health awareness in sports between his time as a player and as a head coach.

“It’s grown immensely,” Barillaro said. “It’s crazy how back when I was in high school or in college, it was like you just kind of brush it off and push it aside. Now, I really like how people are really paying attention to mental health because there’s so much that goes on in the brain that we still don’t know or know how to explain and being able to really focus on mental health and especially men’s mental health. It’s come so far in such a short amount of time.”

During the game, “You Matter” t-shirts were sold, with all proceeds being donated to support the work of the school district’s social work team. The players wore the t-shirts during their warmups and also had a sticker of a “You Matter” ribbon on their helmets while they were in action.

The “You Matter” game also coincides with the school’s recent launch of the “Mental Health 101” website, which provides community resources, mental health services and social emotional learning opportunities.

“It’s an amazing venture for the school district to start to buy into,” Davis said. “From bullying to domestic issues, you can’t quantify the importance of a program like that in the school district. I hope that all school districts have this. I know all school districts have counselors and people that kids can talk to, but for them to openly and positively promote something like this, it can only help.”

In the future, the Lions hope to get other surrounding schools involved in the “You Matter” game and help join the fight for mental health awareness and suicide prevention.

“Our plan is for this year to be our year, so everybody knows it started here,” Barillaro said. “But we really want to reach out to Homer, Cortland, Ithaca, and all the local schools—high school level and college level—to be all on the same page. We all do a “You Matter” game in the same week. We would really like a “You Matter” t-shirt with all the teams’ logos on the back and really show that the community is together. Hopefully in the next couple of years we’ll be able to get that.”