Health
Pair of pitchers win Athlete of the Week as high school season ends
By Jacob Phillips The 2024-25 high school sports season is over following the conclusion of the baseball and softball championships last week. Lexington County was well represented with four teams participating in a title series. Many of the area’s best baseball and softball stars looked to put their teams on their backs and deliver them […]

The 2024-25 high school sports season is over following the conclusion of the baseball and softball championships last week.
Lexington County was well represented with four teams participating in a title series. Many of the area’s best baseball and softball stars looked to put their teams on their backs and deliver them to a trophy. This week’s Athlete of the Week winners did just that.
Voting for Athlete of the Week runs from 10 a.m. Saturday to 10 a.m. Monday each week at lexingtonchronicle.com/athleteoftheweek. To submit a nominee for consideration, email a photo and short bio to sports@lexingtonchronicle.com.
Hunter Epps
Airport’s Hunter Epps was clutch during the team’s run to the 4A baseball championship. The senior ended his high school career helping the Eagles win their first state title in program history.
Epps pitched all six innings in the team’s shutout win in game two. He threw six strikeouts and allowed just four hits, one walk, no runs and no errors. He also pitched the final two innings of game one, allowing one hit with three strikeouts.
Pitching was not the only contribution Epps made during the championship run. He also had a solid series in the batter’s box, going 4-6 in two games as Airport’s leadoff hitter. His all-around play made Airport’s march to the title much easier.
Makenzie Sease
Gray Collegiate’s Makenzie Sease helped her team defend its state championship. The freshman is in her first season with the War Eagles, but that didn’t stop the team from looking her way when they needed her most.
Sease came on in relief and pitched the final four innings of the series-deciding game three. Gray trailed when she first stepped on the mound, and thanks to her near-perfect pitching, the team was able to retake the lead and win the championship.
York scored no runs with Sease on the mound. She threw three strikeouts, while allowing one hit, no walks and no errors.
Sease had a solid outing in game one of the series as well, pitching all seven innings. She recorded six strikeouts while allowing five hits and three walks. The two runs she gave up were enough to give York the win, as Gray’s offense scored only one run.
Health
Natasha Hastings and Michelle Carter inducted into NYAC Hall of Fame
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It was an auspicious evening on June 25 when athletes whose names are etched in history gathered at the New York Athletic Club (NYAC) to celebrate their induction into the NYAC Hall of Fame. The nine athletes honored that evening all had extensive career accomplishments, including national championships, world championships and Olympic medals.
Among the honorees were close friends and teammates, shot putter Michelle Carter and sprinter Natasha Hastings.
“Michelle and I obviously had our separate journeys, but throughout the latter part of our careers we were Frick and Frack,” said Hastings, who won Olympic gold medals in 2008 and ’16 as a member of the 4×400 relay. “It’s funny when you think about how we made a junior team together in 2003 or ’04, and then we made several national teams together and then 2016 Games, of course. It was really nice being inducted with her.
They both trained in Texas (Hastings in Austin and Carter in Dallas) but it was understood if they were going to the same track meet they would be roommates. They’d eat their meals together and explore the cities together.
“The thing that was really special about our friendship throughout the years was that we held each other accountable,” said Hastings. “Those are the things that make real friends. Genuinely wanting the best for each other.”


Hastings was born in Brooklyn, grew up in Queens and attended high school in Harlem, so even though she hasn’t lived in New York City since she was 18, being associated with the NYAC as a competitive athlete made her feel like she was representing her hometown. She is deeply appreciative of the support the club provided as she pursued her Olympic dreams. Now a lifetime member, she intends to pay it forward.
“I look forward to being involved and helping with the future athletes and the athletes of now,” she said.
Speaking with the New York Amsterdam News several days after the NYAC Hall of Fame banquet, she was still feeling the joy. It was deeply meaningful that her son, mother, brother and extended family and friends were in attendance to cheer her on.
Today, Hastings works at her alma mater, University of South Carolina, where she is now a licensed professional counselor associate. She works with the university’s mental health and performance team, providing mental health services to student-athletes and teams.
“I see students for anxiety management, life transitions. A lot of students, their first year away from home is hard, or they’re transferring and going through the transition, and they just need someone to talk to,” Hastings said. “We also do some performance work where they feel like they’re having mental blocks or they’re suffering from performance anxiety.”
Her personal mission is to provide representation of Black women in the therapeutic space. “I want BIPOC, marginalized communities to see that we’re in the space,” Hastings said. “Someone who has the lived experiences in the shoes that they walk.”
Carter won Olympic gold at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, the first and still only American woman to do so in the shot put. Today, she is a motivational speaker, who shares stories of overcoming challenges.
“As a young girl throwing a heavy metal ball, I never imagined one day looking at a room like this,” Carter said at the banquet. “To now be a part of NYAC’s incredible legacy, an institution that has long standing excellence, is both humbling and powerful.”
As a self-described girlie girl with a strong arm and a stronger lip gloss game, Carter expressed appreciation that the NYAC let her be her best authentic self. She said that you don’t just break records, you break barriers. Hastings noted that she and Carter would often share notes on cosmetics, and they appreciate that today’s track and field athletes feel more comfortable going with or without glam as it suits them.
“When I became the first American woman to win Olympic gold in shot put, I did it as me — lashes on, lips were popping and confidence turned all the way up,” Carter said. “You don’t have to change who you are to be successful; you just have to trust what God gave you to be. … I am able to share my story to help others see that [a] champion mindset isn’t just for sports — it’s for life, it’s for business, for school and for self-care. Showing up every day as your full, powerful self.”
The other 2025 inductees are Katie Meili (swimming), Curt Clausen (track and field), Katie Zaferes (triathlon), Kami Craig (water polo), Melissa Seidemann (water polo), John Mann (water polo) and Jesse Smith (water polo).
Health
Del Vecchio Returns as Assistant Coach
Story Links ALBANY, N.Y. – The University at Albany field hockey head coach Phil Sykes has announced the hiring of recent graduate Isabella Del Vecchio as an assistant coach. “We are very excited to be adding Isabella Del Vecchio as an assistant coach,” said Sykes. “She was a strong player for us and, more importantly, a […]


ALBANY, N.Y. – The University at Albany field hockey head coach Phil Sykes has announced the hiring of recent graduate Isabella Del Vecchio as an assistant coach.
“We are very excited to be adding Isabella Del Vecchio as an assistant coach,” said Sykes. “She was a strong player for us and, more importantly, a really great teammate and leader. I think she will add a lot to our staff.”
Del Vecchio returns to the Great Danes after graduating with her Bachelor of Science in Human Biology in May 2025. While a student-athlete, she was an active member of the Student-Athletes Advisory Committee and the Hidden Opponent, a campus organization meant to spread awareness for student-athlete mental health.
“I am very excited to become a part of the University at Albany coaching staff,” said Del Vecchio. “I have loved being a player on the team these past four years, and I am grateful for the opportunity to coach for such a great program. I would like to say thank you to Phil [Sykes] and [Andy Thornton] for the chance to work with [them]. I look forward to the upcoming season.”
As a student-athlete, Del Vecchio was a member of the Great Danes’ field hockey team for four years. The Somers, N.Y. native regularly competed for UAlbany with 59 total appearances and 22 starts. She scored her first collegiate goal as a sophomore and followed with seven goals as a junior. Over the last two years of her career, she played in all but one game.
Outside of her time as a Great Dane, Del Vecchio spent her time with field hockey camps of all ages. Since June 2021, she has coached for New York Hockey Club while taking advantage of additional volunteer opportunities with Guilderland Elementary School and UAlbany’s Field Hockey Youth Day. In addition to field hockey, Del Vecchio was a counselor for the YMCA and an MRI scheduler for the Bone and Joint Center.
Keep up with all of the latest news, highlights, and insights on UAlbany field hockey by following the team on X, Instagram, and Facebook.
Health
Iowa Department of Education awards over $2 million in therapeutic classroom grants to 8 …
The Iowa Department of Education today awarded over $2 million in competitive grants to eight school districts to establish therapeutic classrooms for learners whose emotional or behavioral needs impact their ability to be successful in their learning environment. “Therapeutic classrooms across Iowa provide vibrant, safe and healthy learning environments that best support students’ individual cognitive […]


The Iowa Department of Education today awarded over $2 million in competitive grants to eight school districts to establish therapeutic classrooms for learners whose emotional or behavioral needs impact their ability to be successful in their learning environment.
“Therapeutic classrooms across Iowa provide vibrant, safe and healthy learning environments that best support students’ individual cognitive and behavioral needs,” said Iowa Department of Education Director McKenzie Snow. “We commend this year’s awardees and their community partners for their leadership and commitment to modeling best practices in skill building, stress and trauma coping, mental health treatment, and crisis prevention and intervention.”
The districts awarded a Therapeutic Classroom Incentive Grant for the 2025-26 school year are:
- Bondurant-Farrar CSD
- Cedar Rapids CSD
- Cherokee CSD
- Davenport CSD
- Durant CSD
- Keokuk CSD
- Pella CSD
- Spencer CSD
The Therapeutic Classroom Incentive Grant was established through state legislation signed into law in 2020 and is part of a statewide effort to increase mental health supports for children, youth and families. Now in its fifth round of funding, the awardees may use the grants to establish new classrooms or enhance critical components into current classrooms or programs that are being developed as therapeutic classrooms. Therapeutic supports include such things as skill building, support to cope with stress and trauma, mental health treatment and crisis intervention and follow-up.
In determining awards, priority was given to competitive district applicants that had applied previously and not received an award and to new district applicants that scored competitively. Additional consideration was given to ensure representation across small, medium and large districts. Applicants collaborating with other agencies to provide the therapeutic classrooms across Iowa’s Behavioral Health Districts were also prioritized.
Proposals submitted by the eight awarded districts will serve over 150 pre-K through grade 12 students, establish 17 new therapeutic classrooms and will expand mental health supports for youth across eight counties located in five of the state’s Behavioral Health Districts.
Grants will be distributed this fall for district implementation during the 2025-26 school year.
More information about Therapeutic Classroom Incentive Grants is available on the Iowa Department of Education’s website.


Health
How a young Minnesota dancer stepped through mental health hurdles
How a young Minnesota dancer stepped through mental health hurdles – CBS Minnesota Watch CBS News Jennifer Mayerle shares what it took to help a young dancer get back his zest for life. View CBS News In Be the first to know Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Not Now […]


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Health
'Dr. Marcy' Gets the Gold
Newswise — In December, Simone Biles posted a photo with Marcia Faustin, MD’13, FAAFP, to her millions of Instagram followers, offering thanks for “keeping me sane” amid the excitement and pressure of the 2024 Paris Olympics. (Biles won three gold medals.) Biles’ teammate Sunisa “Suni” Lee called Faustin a “saving angel” for recognizing that the […]


Newswise — In December, Simone Biles posted a photo with Marcia Faustin, MD’13, FAAFP, to her millions of Instagram followers, offering thanks for “keeping me sane” amid the excitement and pressure of the 2024 Paris Olympics. (Biles won three gold medals.)
Biles’ teammate Sunisa “Suni” Lee called Faustin a “saving angel” for recognizing that the sudden inflammation in her body in February 2023 wasn’t allergies, but a serious kidney issue. With Faustin’s guidance, Lee navigated her health condition and went on to nab a gold medal in Paris.
These are just a few of the many praises the elite gymnasts have given Faustin — aka “Dr. Marcy”— since she became co-head physician for the USA Gymnastics women’s national team in 2019.
Since then, Faustin has developed close bonds with the athletes at practice, camps, competitions and at the past two Summer Olympics, in Tokyo and Paris.
Spectators might assume her role mostly involves treating sprains and pain, but the job is also that of a confidant who helps some of the most-watched competitors on Earth maintain their mental health.
“To watch those ladies win gold medals, and to work hard and overcome their challenges, it makes my soul smile,” Faustin said. “I get teary-eyed because I know how much each of them overcame on their journey to success.”
Career springboard started at Pritzker
Faustin, a gymnast and volleyball player during her high school years in Orland Park, expanded her athletic resume as a track and field star at Loyola University Chicago, where she initially intended to major in nursing.
But when the nursing program’s clinical rotations calendar didn’t align with her athletic commitments, she set her sights on medical school.
After earning a premed degree, Faustin came to the Pritzker School of Medicine on scholarship and focused on family and sports medicine.
“I was surrounded by awesome classmates and received an amazing education,” Faustin said.
Her 88-student class was tight-knit; in their free time, they played flag football and broomball and ran races across campus. Many of her classmates remain close friends, and one is now her husband, Toussaint Mears-Clarke, MD’13, MBA, FAAFP, a family medicine physician and obstetrician.
Faustin’s medical school mentor, psychiatrist Elizabeth Kieff, MD’03, Pritzker’s former director of wellness, spoke at their wedding.
Physical and emotional care for athletes
Through a University of Chicago Medicine connection, Faustin eagerly took an opportunity to volunteer at USA Gymnastics competitions. That effort led to her current role with the organization, a job she shares with New York-based Ellen Casey, MD, FACSM, FAAPMR.
The work is collaborative. Sometimes Faustin needs to bring in specialists like orthopaedic surgeons or physical therapists, but her main function is to take what she calls a “bio-psycho-social” approach to the athletes’ care.
That means treating their muscular and skeletal issues, as well as understanding their mental health and how social surroundings can impact it.
“There are a lot of external influences they face,” said Faustin, who encouraged the Olympic gymnasts to minimize or avoid social media while in Paris and Tokyo, establishing “no-phone zones” where they could play cards and socialize. “We just stay focused.”
Faustin praises USA gymnasts for being grateful, hardworking, phenomenal competitors — but she has equal respect for the collegiate athletes and everyday people she treats.
“I find as much joy in helping a patient who now can go dance at their granddaughter’s bat mitzvah,” she said.
Supporting a higher standard
Faustin’s arrival to the team came after a turbulent and transformative time. In 2016, an investigation by The Indianapolis Star revealed that top executives at USA Gymnastics failed to alert authorities to many allegations of sexual abuse by coaches.
Hundreds of gymnasts came forward to say they were sexually assaulted or abused by members of the USA Gymnastics staff and medical team. Among the offenders: team doctor Larry Nassar, who pleaded guilty to federal and state charges and was sentenced to 100 years in prison.
Since then, USA Gymnastics has made many changes and efforts to rebuild trust, including new safety policies and procedures, along with the addition of a chief of athlete health and wellness position.
The most important aspect of caring for patients of all ages, levels and backgrounds is building trust. “It goes both ways; patients need to trust the physicians and vice versa,” she said. “It’s critical to have trust so we can help them make collaborative decisions when the world is watching and do what’s best for them, in the present and for their future.”
Faustin understands the influence — and visibility — of her role is more critical than ever.
“It’s a blessing to be their physician and to have them trust me with vulnerable information that they might not even share with their significant other or family members,” she said. “I really hold that trust to a high standard.”
A doctor for all sports, seasons
Outside of her commitments traveling with USA Gymnastics, which total about 40 days annually, the Sacramento-based Faustin is an assistant clinical professor at the University of California, Davis, where she is co-head physician for the school’s 25 sports teams.
Never content to rest on the sidelines, she’s also the team doctor for the Sacramento Republic FC soccer team.
“It’s a busy life,” Faustin said. “But I love the people and the relationships I get to develop.”
As one of only a handful of Black female sports medicine doctors nationwide, Faustin knows her representation is important. Less than 3% of all U.S. physicians are Black women, and even fewer are in sports medicine, she said.
While her schedule doesn’t leave time for much else, Faustin did speak as part of Pritzker’s Bowman Society Lecture Series in January. The topic: addressing mental health in athletes.
“I’m grateful to have gone to Pritzker, and it’s given me a great foundation to practice medicine,” she said. “So, I want to give back.”
For photos and more information, view the original article on the UChicago website.
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