Coach Gilbert brings back recent grads to educate
Football players at Westfield High School (WHS) are doing more than just preparing for their sectional match-up against Carmel on Oct. 28. Coach Jake Gilbert wants to make sure his athletes are educated about their health, too.
Coach Gilbert collaborated with Breathe Easy Hamilton County and VOICE Hamilton County, the brand’s youth engagement group, to provide education on the dangers of tobacco use and vaping. The team heard from prior Westfield football team captains and WHS graduates Will Strahm ‘22 and Magwire Graybill ‘22, who both currently attend Purdue University.
Strahm and Graybill shared information about the risks of using tobacco and nicotine, gave testimony behind their choice to live vape and tobacco-free, and invited their former teammates to join them by not bowing to peer pressure that often accompanies teen tobacco and nicotine use.
Just like traditional combustible cigarettes, e-cigarettes, the mechanism that kids use to vape, contain nicotine. Nicotine is a highly addictive substance that can harm brain development, which continues until the age of 25. In addition to nicotine, these products also include harmful chemicals linked to serious diseases that can lead to life-long health issues or even be fatal. People who use e-cigarettes are also more likely to smoke cigarettes in the future.
The team learned that using these products can cause anxiety, too.
“Many high schoolers don’t realize that tobacco and nicotine products actually cause anxiety and depression,” Strahm said. “It just is not worth risking your mental health. Not to mention all the negative physical consequences.”
“Our goal is to help these athletes reach their full potential,” Coach Gilbert said. “There is a misconception that vaping is a safe alternative to smoking, and this just isn’t the case. Vaping has serious life-long consequences. Not to mention vaping can be a precursor to cigarette smoking and other harmful drugs. We want to make sure our kids know this.”
About VOICE
VOICE is Indiana’s statewide youth empowerment brand and program, whose initiative is to engage, educate, and empower teens to promote and celebrate tobacco-free lifestyles. With a mission to engage, educate, empower young people as leaders and advocates in their communities through sustained youth-adult partnerships, positive youth development and public health advocacy training. VOICE Indiana has funded 24 counties and two Statewide Chapters (Indiana Black Expo and Indiana Latino Institute) and is represented by over 429 Core Team Leaders and Action Squad Members across the state.
About Breathe Easy Hamilton County
As an alliance working with local organizations and individuals within the Hamilton County community, Breathe Easy Hamilton County promotes tobacco-free living in order to reduce mortality and morbidity rates. Breathe Easy Hamilton County is working to ensure that all workers in Hamilton County are protected from secondhand smoke exposure and believes everyone deserves the right to breathe smoke-free air at work and in public places.
About Good Samaritan Network
Breath Easy Hamilton County is locally sponsored as a fiscal agent by Good Samaritan Network (GSN) of Hamilton County, which acts as the Lead Agency. GSN is the umbrella organization that coordinates and develops various opportunities for consistent programming and services in Hamilton County for those underserved or at-risk. The connection and collaboration with GSN empowers network participants with a reliable means of reference checking, decision-making opportunities, and reduces duplication of services in serving the Hamilton County community.