LI Team Dedicates Game To Beloved Duke Lacrosse Student

BAY SHORE, NY — A Bay Shore community is coming together to honor a beloved student athlete and spread awareness of mental health.

The Bay Shore High School girls lacrosse team held its first ever Morgan’s Message lacrosse game on Wednesday, in honor of Morgan Rogers, a Duke University lacrosse player who took her own life in 2019.

Dawned in teal and orange — Rodger’s favorite colors — Bay Shore won the game 6-5 against William Floyd High School.

Taylor Harney, Bay Shore head coach, said she held this special game for multiple reasons.

Her sister Kyla Harney, who also played with Bay Shore, was teammates with Rogers at Duke.

“It was heartbreaking for my sister,” Harney said about Rodger’s passing. “When I went to visit and watch my sister's games, she (Morgan) would be there and just be a happy, smiling girl, from what you would see on the outside.”

According to the Morgan’s Message website, Rodgers was “a bright student with limitless curiosity”, and gave “100% of herself to every passion, project, and person she encountered.”

In January of 2017, Rodgers suffered a knee-injury, shattering her sports career. This led her to experience levels of anxiety, depression, and low self-worth.

“As a student athlete, a lot of people just focus mostly on your physical capabilities, rather than who you are, and what your mental status is as well,” Harney said.

After her death, the Rodgers family created the Morgan’s Message foundation, to eliminate stigma surrounding mental health within the student-athlete community and equalize the treatment of physical and mental health in athletics.

“They wanted to normalize conversations about mental health, and ensure that mental health is being treated equally,” Harney said.

The pressures of a student athlete can be intense and demanding, even for those who do not suffer from a mental illness, she told Patch.

“That's the one thing that people don't tell you when you sign up for this,” Harney said.
“You have practice, we have conditioning, you have study hours. There's just so much more that goes into it.”

Just like Morgan, Harney said that many young people often center their identity around their sport. When they are no longer athletes, they feel lost.

“We found that it was so important to start this message early on,” said Harney. “I wanted my girls to be aware of it and know that they are more than just an athlete. There’s more to them than just that.”

More than 600 schools in the country dedicate a game for Morgan's Message each year, Harney said, and imply educational workshops and activities for its student athletes.

While many professional athletes such as Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka have sparked worldwide conversations about mental health this year, she said, more work is left to be done.

Earlier this month, a goalie on the Binghamton University mens lacrosse team took his own life.

“Hopefully that is a message to people who are struggling, that there is life outside of sports,” Harney said. “And I think that's the biggest thing that people need to be aware of.”