For the second year in a row, Dayton will host an in-state opponent in a charity exhibition to support adolescent and young adult mental health and suicide prevention.
Dayton head coach Anthony Grant and his wife, Chris, lost their only daughter, Jayda, to suicide in 2022.
Jay’s Light was founded to remember Jayda as well as “advocate for more comprehensive mental health care and to do all that we can to increase awareness around these issues.”
The University of Dayton will partner with CareSource to host Xavier on October 20th in an NCAA-waiver approved charity to benefit Jay’s Light.
“There's such a stigma around mental health,” Tony Coder, Executive Director of the Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation, told FlyerHoops. “This game is so crucially important because it brings 13,000 UD fans together. Even if it's just some sprinkles, it at least puts the subject area in the air for so many people. We want to make it an easier conversation around this, that it's not such a scary conversation. We're hoping that these types of events will make it an easier subject area. People will be able to reach out more and not feel so alone.”
Coder has worked with Anthony and Chris for a couple of years now. Grant spoke about his daughter’s death for the first time publicly in May of 2023 for the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation Medical & Health Symposium.
Since then, Coder said Grant has been a huge champion for mental health.
“He gets a megaphone that I don't have or the people in our field don't have,” Coder explained. “He has the ability to reach people that love UD basketball. Those are people that may never consider going to our website, our training, or an event we have. He is able to reach some folks that we really want to have understand what we're talking about.”
80% of suicides in Ohio are middle aged men, 35 to 65 years old. Clearly, there’s some crossover between that demographic and those that attend Dayton basketball games.
Last year, Dayton lost the charity exhibition to Ohio State, but at the end of the day, everyone was a winner because of the game’s purpose.
“It was such a success last year,” Coder acknowledged. “We had a full house at the game and there were opportunities to share messages. We had tapings of both UD and Ohio State players on the big screen. During the week, we had a townhall meeting where 1,900 people attended, despite it raining all night. It was amazing! I probably got 60 text messages the next day asking the right questions. So it was a success, both from an attendance standpoint and from a personal standpoint, for a lot of people.”
That includes both Anthony and Chris Grant that Coder said this is 100% a big deal in their healing process.
“It’s therapeutic to them,” he added. “They're giving other families the ability to understand where to go, how to reach out, even what to say. You know, those are things that you know they didn't have resources before. I think that is a great part in their healing process.”
It’s a pretty big deal that Grant is involved with sports. A lot of athletes, at a young age, are conditioned that if they physically get hurt that they should just dust themselves off and get up or rub some dirt on it and they’ll be fine. Certainly, mental health was rarely talked about, if at all.
“As a respected coach, he’s able to reach a demographic that has kind of been conditioned to not have this be part of their lexicon,” Coder noted. “Being a sports guy, I think it also makes it easier for the players and for other sports figures to be able to talk about it openly; they've opened the door, if you will, and allowed others to come out with maybe share their own struggles.”
We’ve all heard about dialing 9-1-1 in the time of emergency. Many of us are probably familiar with 8-1-1, a number to have your electrical lines mapped out before you dig. But a large portion of the population are unaware of 9-8-8.
“9-8-8 is a crisis lifeline,” Coder explained. “It’s not just for those that may be suicidal. It can be if you’re just having a really bad day. I don't know what to do, I don't know where to go, how do I find a counselor? You know, that type of stuff can be answered. So I think that is what Anthony really wants, is just the ability to know where to go and what to do, so a person isn't paralyzed if they or a loved one is struggling.”
There are 19 call centers around the state of Ohio to help. They are open 24 hours a day for seven days a week. Everything is anonymous and nothing shows up on your phone bill. Skilled professionals on the other end are all located in Ohio and can support you and/or connect you to local resources.
“The latest research I saw coming out from the feds was 80% of the issues that people call 9-8-8 about are actually resolved on the phone without having to involve counselors and crisis workers,” he said. “The earlier that we can reach somebody who might be having a down day, the better chance we have of saving a life. It's the scary times when people call us here and they're literally crying and saying I want to end it, that’s the tough person to help. We want to really get out really in front of this to be able to help people. That's what 9-8-8 is for.”
You’ll likely see that number a lot this October when Xavier travels north on I-75 for the exhibition.
Coder expects a lot of the same types of things in the second year because of how successful the first year was.
CareSource donated $100,000 and Obi Toppin donated $20,000 to Jay’s Light last season. All of the proceeds from ticket sales go to the foundation as well.
“Between President Spina, Neil Sullivan, and Coach Grant, they have all been really focused on making this a success,” he said. “They have been tremendous partners in getting the message out. Frankly, I have to thank the UD fans too. If they didn’t want to hear this message, it would probably be pretty rough for the university to continue the game. The UD fans have been tremendous in their outpouring of support for this type of effort.”
Of course, it will be the first time for fans to see their 2024-2025 Flyers. It will also be an opportunity for fans to see Dayton and their former rival, Xavier, meet for the first time since the 2015-2016 season.
“I hope that people come to the game, they enjoy themselves, and they go home with a little extra knowledge.”
A little extra knowledge could be the key to saving a life. And with the help of CareSource, the University of Dayton, and Jay’s Light, more progress can be made in dealing with the stigma surrounding mental health and suicide.
Either Dayton or Xavier will win the game. But at the end of the day, we will all, once again, win on October 20th.
