Mental health is personal to Wildcats forward Trinity Baptiste, who shares story with teammates

One thing you quickly learn about Trinity Baptiste is that she is persistent.

Baptiste wanted to serve as her team’s mental health ambassador on the UA’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. When she learned the position was already taken, she took her case to Sam Thomas, her teammate and co-president of the SAAC. Just like that, she was in.

Mental health is personal to Baptiste, a senior graduate transfer from Virginia Tech. Baptiste’s mother was diagnosed with bipolar mental disorder when the UA forward was young.

“I was not able to be around her and be raised by her. So, from a kid, I had to learn … and I had to see how it affects people,” Baptiste said.

“That’s where my passion came from … now that I’m an athlete, I’m always busy. I’m always going, going — sometimes I need to slow down and think, ‘OK, I can use my story to encourage other people, not just athletes.’”

Baptiste was front and center last week, when the UA commemorated Mental Health Awareness Week. In a video produced by the athletic department, Baptiste explained that she takes care of her mental health by meditating every day and talking to her family. Baptiste also handed out the green bandanas to everyone in the women’s basketball program and asked them to take photos and share their messages on social media to build awareness.

This isn’t the first time Baptiste has gotten involved. At Virginia Tech, the 6-foot forward — who was the ACC’s sixth player of the year last season, averaging 9.5 points and 6.4 rebounds per game — volunteered with Hokies Thrive, a committee that brings student-athletes together to talk about dealing with pressures from society and coaches and other mental health issues.

Social media creates “anxiety for everyone,” she said.

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“It’s important to have a good balance of your sport, family time, even time spent on the Internet,” Baptiste said. “Just as much as we train our bodies and work out every day, I think it’s important for us to really work on our mental (side), as well. Because you can look at someone and see that they’re strong — maybe admire them and watch them play and think, ‘Wow, they have everything going for themselves.’ But you never know what’s going on inside.

“I think that’s something that we need to talk about more, erase stigmas and have everyone comfortable speaking about it.”

Bapiste not only shares her story with her teammates, but she checks in on them.

“Especially the freshmen. I’ve been calling them a lot,” she said. “With COVID, this is not how a student-athlete’s experience is supposed to be as a freshman. I told them, ‘I’m proud of you guys.’”

Baptiste isn’t the only one who is proud. Back home in Tampa, Florida, her mom, Debbie Lindo, is looking at everything her daughter is accomplishing and is smiling.

“She’s super excited. She just supports me in anything I do,” Baptiste said of her mom. “She’s just proud of me. She’s just happy; she’s super confident in me in anything I do. She’s just proud.”

Rim shots

Baptiste said the Wildcats aren’t focusing on polls that rank Arizona as one of the best teams in the country. “We know what our goals are, and we know where we want to finish,” she said. “We’re just growing every day. … We’re going to be good. We’re going to be good.”

• Earlier this week, the NCAA ruled that winter sports athletes will retain their eligibility for next season. Although it’s still early, Thomas said she’s started to think about coming back for another year. “Definitely after COVID and everything, I’m just trying to take things one step at a time — just trying to focus on this season,” Thomas said. “After what happened last season I just really want to get to the tournament and see what I can do there. Then I’ll probably just make a decision later on when it’s actually crunch time and I need to make a decision.”