Last Saturday, the Oberlin College softball, baseball, women’s lacrosse, and men’s and women’s tennis teams participated in One Love Dedication Day. The day, subtitled “One Campus, One Love,” was the Oberlin chapter of the One Love Foundation’s event aimed at spreading awareness about toxic and abusive relationships.
The One Love Foundation is a national nonprofit with the mission of educating young people about the signs of unhealthy relationships and equipping them with the necessary tools for helping both themselves and their communities. Through youth-led workshops, One Love hopes to open up and normalize the conversation surrounding relationships and conflict and has the specific goal of empowering youth to represent the organization themselves. The Oberlin chapter is just one of many around the country.
The organization was founded in 2010 after University of Virginia women’s lacrosse student-athlete Yeardley Love was murdered by her ex-boyfriend. Subsequently, her friends and family started the One Love Foundation to honor her memory and help prevent future tragedies.
The Oberlin chapter is specifically situated within the athletics program, with the board being entirely made up of athletes, many of whom are on the women’s lacrosse team. The chapter holds a workshop for student-athletes every semester using videos and presentations made by the broader foundation to educate each class of athletes. The attendees of this semester’s workshop included nearly 200 underclassmen athletes and aimed to educate them about the differences between healthy and unhealthy conflict.
“We’re able to facilitate these conversations, and I think that really is a great way to spread the message,” Oberlin One Love treasurer and second-year Kylie Thompson said. “I think it’s really important for [them] to be student-led discussions, because I think that makes it feel more approachable and more discussion-based instead of having an adult who’s maybe more intimidating talk to you.”
“We always start our workshops with saying that 100 percent of people are in relationships, and 100 percent of people have relationships they can improve,” Oberlin One Love Co-President and fourth-year Mya Valdez said. “If I had one thing that I want everyone to leave a workshop [knowing, it] is how to have difficult conversations with their friends about their relationships because it’s something that I think a lot of people struggle to do or it’s not something that people are prepared for.”
For the Dedication Day games, Oberlin athletes playing at home donned One Love-themed apparel, with the women’s lacrosse team sporting blue and white jerseys and other teams decorating with One Love ribbons, wristbands, glitter, or stickers. There was also a barbeque for fans, players, and families. Additionally, Oberlin One Love distributed bingo cards with activities in each square aimed at encouraging participants to engage with the day’s features. Bingo squares included going to every One Love game, following the One Love Instagram account, donating, and more. Winners of the bingo entered a raffle to win a merch bag.
“Whenever we do a dedication game, our coach always mentions that we’re playing for something bigger than ourselves,” Valdez said. “A lot of the time in athletics, we’re mid-season, and it’s mid-school, and you have your own friendships and relationships going on. It’s good to remember that there’s something larger than yourself to play for and be active with.”
On Saturday, One Love representatives traveled from field to field with a large poster that read “What is one relationship you are grateful for?” Players, coaches, fans, parents, and even members of opposing teams wrote in their own answers, filling in the poster completely by the end of the day.
“We really just try to get everyone involved with that, whether it was the other team or parents walking by,” Oberlin One Love Co-President and fourth-year Megan Hiller said. “It was really nice to see at the end of the game that it was filled out completely. It was really impactful to see that it was successful, that these dedication games actually mean something, and that people really engaged with it.”
All the Dedication Day Games were originally planned to take place Saturday, April 4, but because of rainstorms, various games were rescheduled to either the day before or the day after. The baseball team played on Friday, and split their doubleheader against Wabash College. Although they lost game one 14–11, first-year Patrick Leonard became the fourth player in program history to hit two home runs in one game and the first player in program history to hit three home runs in a doubleheader. Then, in game two, they came back from a 6–0 deficit, and third-year Brady Groves hit a walkoff single to earn the Yeomen the win, 7–6.
The softball team also went 1–1 in their doubleheader against John Carroll University, losing game one 10–4, but coming back in game two and winning 10–2 in six innings.
Women’s lacrosse had a successful day, winning their first conference game against Wittenberg University 15–4. With Hiller’s three assists, she moved into the No. 2 spot on the program career points record book with 187.
Men’s and women’s tennis both faced off against nationally-ranked Kenyon College and both were unable to come up with the win. The men lost 6–1, and the women came up short 7–0.
In the future, Oberlin One Love hopes to do many more dedication games and to expand their reach even further outside of athletics.
“We’re talking about working with the Title IX office more, and PRSM, too,” Thompson said. “I think it’d be really great to have a more condensed acknowledgement on campus of the [message] we’re spreading.”
Hiller echoed this sentiment, noting that this year is just the organization’s first year of being an official campus club.
“Since we just became a club, and we’re getting the funding now, this is just ground one,” she said. “We’re really trying to build it up from here and make it a bigger message on campus. I’m really excited to see where it goes in the future.”
