{"id":16478,"date":"2026-02-07T15:20:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T15:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/?p=16478"},"modified":"2026-07-21T16:20:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T16:20:55","slug":"student-athlete-club-sponsors-successful-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/2026\/02\/07\/student-athlete-club-sponsors-successful-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"Student-Athlete club sponsors successful\u00a0weekend\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By Ella Weidenhammer, \u201927 staff writer <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first weekend of February consisted of an athletically-packed weekend for LVC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two of the games consisted of The Hidden\u00a0Opponent (THO) awareness games. THO is the leading non-profit organization for athlete mental health advocacy,\u00a0education\u00a0and support.\u00a0It\u00a0provides\u00a0resources and unites\u00a0a global community to empower athletes to prioritize their mental health and shatter the stigma within sports culture.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One empowered athlete decided to bring a chapter right here\u00a0to\u00a0Annville. Lyla Arfanella, a junior on the volleyball team, serves as LVC\u2019s THO\u00a0president.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Hidden Opponent means community, unity, and growth,\u201d Arfanella said. \u201cWe are all current or former athletes with different stories but find similarities in our battles and work to overcome them together. I am so grateful that we have so many members that have joined our community and are working hard to end the stigma behind mental health.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first game of the weekend took place at the Hersheypark Arena where LVC\u2019s women\u2019s ice hockey team\u00a0faced the Blazers of Hood College. The Dutchmen pulled ahead in the first period, scoring two goals in the first 18 minutes by Mallory Burdick and\u00a0Brysha\u00a0Schmidt. The final Dutchmen goal of the game was scored by Anna\u00a0Dale,\u00a0giving the go-ahead win\u00a03-1. Norah McCauliffe, a junior team representative, played\u00a0a big role\u00a0in the success of\u00a0the THO\u00a0Awareness Game.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen my team found out we would have a THO Awareness Game, they were very excited,\u201d\u00a0McCauliffie\u00a0said. \u201cThis excitement was key to how successful the game was. Mental health is\u00a0very important\u00a0to my team, and especially with how long our season is, we always prioritize preserving our mental health. I thought the game overall was a success; not only did we win, but seeing the big turnout for the after-game skate was\u00a0really special. It truly goes to show how important it is to spread awareness for mental health in athletes, and how seen it makes us feel.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final THO\u00a0Awareness Game took place less than 24 hours after the\u00a0women\u2019s ice hockey game. This time,\u00a0the women\u2019s\u00a0basketball team took the court wearing a different warmup shirt than usual. Across their shirts was the new LVC THO branch logo created by McCauliffe along with \u201cThe Hidden Opponent\u201d written in green and white below. Alexa Holcomb, junior guard whose role is\u00a0secretary within the\u00a0organization,\u00a0helped with setting up the\u00a0game.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted to be a part of the awareness here at LVC because of my own struggles with basketball and mental health as well, and I wanted to take this opportunity to help others,\u201d Holcomb said. \u201cWe have now had two awareness games, and we loved both of them. Because of our game last year, a lot of my team members have joined the club and even become team reps. This year, we were very excited to host a second one because of how successful and fun our game had been last year, drawing people to our game and spreading awareness for the cause. Many people on my team have dealt with mental health in one way or another, and being able to dedicate a game to something we all have dealt with shows the cause is bigger than ourselves. It was an honor to be a part of.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Dutchmen played against King\u2019s College. Senior Riley\u00a0Heavlow\u00a0led the Dutchmen to the sweep on the season against\u00a0King’s\u00a0with the final score of 53-33.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Hidden Opponent is not just for our student-athletes here at LVC, and\u00a0all are welcome,\u201d Arfanella said. \u201cWe talk about topics that can relate to the classroom, workplace and friendship\/family dynamics. Recently, I had to step away from the sport I love due to an injury. It is now more than ever that I am realizing the benefits our THO community has to offer to this entire campus.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If students would like to learn more about The Hidden Opponent, contact Lyla Arfanella at lka001@lvc.edu<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ella Weidenhammer, \u201927 staff writer  The first weekend of February consisted of an athletically-packed weekend for LVC.  Two of the games consisted of The Hidden\u00a0Opponent (THO) awareness games. THO is the leading non-profit organization for athlete mental health […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":16479,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16478","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-campus-news","8":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16478"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16957,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16478\/revisions\/16957"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}