The student athlete population at Severna Park as a community within the school walls seeks to constantly uplift and support each other and aid in reaping benefits on and off the field. And through this, an excellent student run resource has emerged at Severna Park High School, Morgan’s Message. 

Morgan’s Message as a whole is far bigger than just SPHS, it was started to honor the legacy of Morgan Rodgers, a Duke University lacrosse player who lost her life to suicide in 2019. Morgan’s family then established the organization to help break down barriers surrounding mental health for student athletes and to help spread the message that mental health matters. Now the Morgan’s Message operates in colleges and high schools across the country, getting athletes to open up and breaking stigmas.

The Morgan’s Message club at Severna Park preaches this same rhetoric, and has boomed into a well populated club that involves students across all sports to speak about mental health and support these student athletes through the mental stressors of high school. Morgan’s Message clubs’ vice president Vivian Major said, 

“I believe Morgan’s Message is really important. Our school’s very focused on athletes and around athletics, and specifically Morgan’s Message is dedicated to breaking down the stigma for student athletes.”

The club holds its meetings during falcon block and also engages in outside of school and community events. This school year Morgan’s Message Club went to the AFSP Out Of The Darkness suicide walk and encouraged sports teams at the school to come and participate as well. The walk was a success for the club and the club’s President Lucy Davis spoke about the importance of support at the event as well. 

Morgan’s message member and soccer player Keira Wittlinger said, 

“It was a very fun experience that I really felt like brought our Severna Park community together. It was also great bonding moment for all of my soccer teammates to come together for a cause”

Further, the Morgan’s Message club has hosted dedication nights through school athletic events to spread the efforts of the club and continue to honor Morgan’s Rodgers’ legacy. The volleyball, boys soccer team, and girls soccer team donned the Morgan’s Message logo and the slogan Human > Athlete on their warm up shirts on their respective dedication nights and a moment of silence was held for Morgan Rodgers and her life cut to short at the hands of suicide. These events helped spread the club’s impact outside of school and the continuous efforts to talk about mental health are what the club strives for every day.

 “Everyone struggles with their mental health a little bit. Everyone’s been stressed, everyone’s been sad, everyone has had these ups and downs, so it is great to have this community” Major said.