The games mattered on Friday night inside the George Houston Gymnasium, but the message for mental awareness took center stage throughout the evening as the Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé varsity basketball teams hosted their first of a two-night series against the Monroe Catholic Rams from Fairbanks.
“I do know people in my life and peers who mentally struggle,” JDHS junior guard Gwen Nizich said. “And I think it is very important that it isn’t something that we don’t talk about, that we raise awareness to everybody and maybe we can touch someone’s life and help prevent the extreme…Just to understand signs and being aware of your peers around country wise email marketing list you maybe you can help in a situation just by the simplest things.”
The Crimson Bears girls earned a 52-40 win on Friday while the Crimson Bears boys lost their game, 76-55.
The night’s fundraiser — Take A Timeout to Talk — was hosted by Find Your Fire and Juneau Suicide Prevention Coalition.
“We talk about that all the time,” Monroe girls coach Travis Cortez said. “Supporting one another. We know that in this day and age it is a real thing and more people are starting to realize and be aware of those things. We always talk about this in our program, about how we love and support our teammates. We’ve been doing that for years, long before the mental health issues, we talk about awareness… We are a small school, we have to love and support one another…We recognize those things, as coaches jdhs basketball teams split first we talk about those things all the time. Overall we talk about the privilege to play basketball when there are a lot of people out there that have bigger issues they have to deal with.”
Crimson Bears girls dominate first half, hold on to win
Wearing purple warmup shirts to support the cause, the JDHS girls took the floor first. With the inside work of senior Kerra Baxter, and the pressure defense from juniors Cambry Lockhart and clean email Nizich and sophomore Layla Tokuoka, the Crimson Bears held an 8-2 advantage with two minutes left in the first quarter despite poor shooting from both teams.