A Day of Listening

Today was a day of doing a lot of listening. 

Listening to people talk. 

Listening to presentations. 

Two important talks that are totally different. 

Both have a sports aspect but not the main aspect. 

First, this afternoon, it was listening to John Trautwein speak at Ludlowe on the loss of his son to suicide and the importance of Life Teammates. If you want to learn more about John's story and his foundation, Will To Live Foundation, visit will-to-live.org. 

John also spoke at Warde this morning. He has come to both Fairfield schools a couple of times over the last few years. His talk impacts everyone differently, and has had a greater impact on the Warde community and the entire Fairfield community when then-Warde student Kevin Kuczo died by suicide on February 4, 2021. 

Kevin's father, Jim, who has a foundation of his own Kevin's Afterglow, spoke prior to John's presentation and introduced John. Both gentleman who have lost their sons have tried to help others not have to go through what they dealt with. Both of their missions are around the way people live their lives and how to make sure everyone is supported. 

It was very important and powerful. Mental heath and suicide has unfortunately become very prevalent the in recent years. John and Jim, among others, are working to break the stigma and help others. 

The speaker this evening at Warde, on a much different topic, was Wayne Mazzoni, to talk about college athletic recruiting. The event was a joint effort between both Warde and Ludlowe's athletic department's as well as both school's student services department's. 

Wayne is formerly an assistant baseball coach at Sacred Heart University and does many talks about recruiting. 

It was really informative and very down to earth. I hope all the student-athletes who were there got something out of it. There were athletes from both schools and multiple sports there. 

Wayne gave information for both the parents and students and was also interactive and answered many questions from those in attendance. 

The presentation was directed for the students and parents, but I felt as a high school coach and someone who works in athletics in the school, it was also good for me (and all coaches) to hear to help the student-athletes as they prepare for life after high school. 

I definitely learned and realized things.

You can learn more about Wayne and his services at WayneMazzoni.com

Overall, it was a day of listening and learning.