Edward Rudman – Sports Writer
The field hockey program continued its support against domestic violence, participating in the Domestic Violence Awareness March that took place Oct. 21 on campus.
Head Coach Kelley Frassinelli has been a staunch supporter of the cause for years and even coordinated the team’s participation back in March. Frassinelli is also a member of the school’s Sexual Assault Response Team in conjunction with SCSU’s Violence Prevention and Victim Advocacy Support Center.
“We’ve taken part in it every year as long as I’ve been here,” said Frassinelli. “We’re just doing our part with student athletes because you find that a large amount of domestic violence that happens between partners from teams and we want to make sure you can identify those red flags in a relationship.”
The players that attended took part in a video of students holding poster’s reading “We stand with you,” “Break the Silence, Stop the Violence” and “It’s on us to stop the violence”.
The three groups, each holding posters, walked from the academic quad and met at the middle, where each saying was stated. The video ended with the message “Southern stands against domestic violence”.
Defender Megan Habakangas, a senior, said she has taken part in multiple domestic violence awareness events while under the tutelage of Frassinelli for four years and is thankful that she gets the opportunity to be a part of it all.
“Coming in my freshman year, I never really did a lot of community service voluntarily just because I didn’t want to go and do something like that by myself,” said Habakangas. “But being with a team and with a group, it makes you want to do better and be a part of something better and we’ve done so many things that we’ve – that have made me feel good to know that we can help, no matter how small the gesture is.”
Habakangas said taking part in events such as the march opened her eyes to the issue of domestic violence and allowed her to see it from a different perspective that she had not prior.
Forward Brianna Caffrey, a freshman, is in her first year with the team and said taking part in the March and filming the video was great to do with the team and the final product was moving.
“I didn’t really know how it was going to come together, but when we were saying the phrases, I could feel the impact it was going to have,” Caffrey said. “When they put it together, the way it was pieced together, it really flowed nicely and I think it’s going to be effective at bringing awareness to domestic violence.”
