A “disgusting” finger injury is helping Providence Catholic junior Kailee O’Sullivan point students with emotional and mental issues in the right direction.
Flashback to late 2020. Playing travel softball in an indoor tournament in Iowa, the pitcher/infielder was playing first base and had to dive for a ball thrown by her shortstop.
“I tried to block it and right before I hit the ground and the index finger on my (right) pitching hand was just shattered,” O’Sullivan said. “I went into shock immediately. It looked disgusting.
“I had some tendon damage and really bad nerve damage.”
Plus painful and frustrating rehab to follow.
As 2022 closes out, O’Sullivan is thankful that on the diamond, she has been able to return to form, even though she admits she has to alter her grip and delivery when pitching.
In September, she was named as one of the top 40 players in the nation for the class of 2024 by Extra Inning Softball, an organization dedicated to high school and college softball.
Off the field, some would consider her an even bigger success because she used some of the anxiety that she felt during her injury, coupled with the suicide of a fellow student-athlete at Providence, to get involved in the Morgan’s Message program and bring it this year to the New Lenox school.
The group’s mission statement reads “To amplify stories, resources and expertise to strengthen student-athlete mental health, build a community by and for athletes through peer-to-peer conversations and provide a platform for advocacy.”
The organization is named after Morgan Rodgers, who played lacrosse at Duke University but suffered from high levels of anxiety. She injured her knee in 2017 and in 2019 took her own life at age 22.
After the suicide death at Providence rocked the campus in 2021 and after O’Sullivan dealt with her injury, she said it was time to take action.
“That’s when I said, ‘all right, this (Morgan’s Message) needs to come to our school,”’ she said. “I saw something about it online. So, I talked to the counselors about it and (football assistant coach and school social worker Jeremiah Jobe) ended up helping me out with it.”
The Morgan’s Message program has close to 2,000 ambassadors representing more than 800 high schools and colleges.
In Illinois, there are nine high schools and four colleges participating — the University of Illinois, Northwestern, Rickford and McKendree. Locally, Providence and St. Laurence have high school programs.
O’Sullivan helps lead a Providence group that meets on the first Monday of the month after school. Meetings could last 30 minutes or longer depending on how many people participate and share their stories and feelings.
One session drew more than 20 students, O’Sullivan said. She said she was surprised at the makeup of the group.
“Most of them are guys,” she said. “I wasn’t thinking about that at first. Now that I think about it, guys are told they can’t cry or show emotion. ‘Man up.’ I feel like a lot of times their emotions are overlooked so I’m glad they are coming to the meetings.”
O’Sullivan enjoys running the meeting and she tries to spread that enjoyable vibe to everyone.
“I’m very hands on,” she said. “Morgan’s Message provides us with PowerPoints but I have the freedom to edit them.
“We do activities. We’re interactive, No one wants to be in a meeting that is serious, and this is a hard topic to talk about. No one feels pressure. If someone doesn’t want to talk, that’s fine.”
O’Sullivan, a Plainfield resident, said in one of her favorite activities she puts four signs up in the corners of the room that say, “strongly agree,” “agree,” strongly disagree” and “disagree.”
Then she asks questions such as: “Do you have good coping mechanisms?”
Students then go to one of the corners of the room that applies and have a discussion.
O’Sullivan said that she likes the idea of helping other students.
“I’m a helper and when I can help people, it makes me feel better,” she said. “I’ll see someone down and if I can make their day a little better, that makes my day a whole lot better.
“I think seeing the impact this program is already having has made my mind space a little better. Sometimes I do struggle. Just like everyone else, I try to compete at a top level for my sport. I try to get the best grades I can get. There is a lot of pressure.”
So, these meetings are good for her, too.
“I’m a presenter and a participant,” she said. “It’s therapeutic for me.”
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.