Gromacki, Bieser and Mizzou Baseball Rally Around It's On Us
4/27/2018 11:00:00 AM | Baseball
Mizzou Baseball is raising awareness for the national organization, hoping to end sexual violence
On Tuesday during Mizzou Baseball's 8-2 win over in-state foe Missouri State, a midweek record crowd of 2,331 fans packed Taylor Stadium. As head coach Steve Bieser and his club strung together a season-high eight doubles in the rout over the Bears, each run that crossed the plate brought thunderous applause from the Mizzou faithful. But as the fans continued to rise to their feet and cheer as Mizzou tacked on run after run, many were not in the traditional Mizzou black and gold – they were in teal. Even the Mizzou players had teal accents on their uniforms.
While wearing teal to a Mizzou Baseball game would usually be a fashion faux pas most days, the color represented something much larger Tuesday. In the second annual It's On Us Night at Taylor Stadium, Mizzou Baseball continued to Commit To Excellence off the field, raising awareness of sexual assault on college campuses.
"Ï thought it was a big hit last year and it grew this year and was even better Tuesday," head coach Steve Bieser said. "To have all of our student-athletes here, supporting It's On Us, it was a really exciting night for everyone."
Mizzou Baseball's connection to It's On Us begins with senior RHP and Student Athlete Advisory Council President Nolan Gromacki. A campaign that began in the White House, It's On Us is a national organization that aims to change the culture when it comes to tolerance for sexual assault. Its principles are to recognize that non-consensual sex is sexual assault, to identify situations in which sexual assault may occur, to intervene in situations where consent has not or cannot be given, and to create an environment in which sexual assault is unacceptable and survivors are supported.
Tonight, @MizzouBaseball is adding some teal to our usual Black and Gold in support of the first ever @ItsOnUs Teal Out at 6:30 pm! #C2E pic.twitter.com/nUT2Dmb5Os
— Nolan Gromacki (@NolanGromacki) April 14, 2017
Gromacki, who is extremely involved with leadership groups both in Mizzou Athletics and on campus, became aware of It's On Us through a friend – Tori Schafer. Schafer has been leading the charge for the cause on campus and has grown the group from an original six members to now more than 120. Gromacki and Schafer originally teamed up over the Green Dot initiative, which encourages bystanders to intervene when they see power-based personal violence. Following a conference during which the two spoke, Gromacki sought other ways that Mizzou could help the campus leadership groups in creating a safer environment on campus. That was the beginning of It's On Us Night.
"Nolan has been such a great role model to his teammates about how he prioritizes things and does an outstanding job in the community," Bieser said. "Those are the types of guys we are trying to build our program with. I can't say enough about what he's done, on and off the field."
Getting Support from His Coach and TeammatesAfter tossing around the idea of doing a theme night centered around It's On Us, Gromacki took the idea to his head coach first. Then in his first season at Mizzou, Bieser was laying the foundation for his program, centered around his mantra: Commit to Excellence. His program motto encompasses excellence in all walks of life, not just success on the baseball diamond. Bieser aims to mold young men into positive members of society, so he was the perfect coach for Gromacki to pitch the idea to.
"The first thing I wanted to do was get information about what It's On Us was and learn a little bit more on what it was all about," Bieser said.
It didn't take long for Bieser to see how worthy of a cause it was. He quickly tasked Gromacki with informing his teammates to gain their support.
"Those 34 other guys in that locker room rallying behind me and saying: yeah Nolan, we absolutely support this; we want to do it," Gromacki said. "That made it easy to step up and say this is something we want to get involved in."
From that point, Gromacki and Bieser worked with Mizzou Athletics staffers to begin marketing the night. In its first year, the Mizzou saw 2,402 fans pack into Taylor Stadium for a game against Kentucky. It was Mizzou's best-attended game all year and it was clear that Mizzou Baseball and Gromacki had made a difference. The decision to do the event again in 2018 was easy.
Guess we'll have to update our cover photo ??
— #MizzouBaseball (@MizzouBaseball) April 25, 2018
Thanks to all who made #Mizzou's @ItsOnUsMU Night a huge success!#MIZ #C2E ???? pic.twitter.com/oMe8eCp56s
Tuesday against Missouri State, Mizzou set a midweek attendance record with 2,331 fans, comprised primarily of Mizzou students and student-athletes supporting It's On Us. One of the goals of the organization is to change the culture when it comes to tolerance of sexual assault. With two games, it is clear that Mizzou Baseball has made that impact on the Mizzou community.
"I think the entire night speaks volumes about Coach Bieser," Gromacki said. "He didn't view this as just a way to fill seats. We said that if we're going to do this, we're going to do it right. Coach Bieser wanted to make sure that every player knows what it is that we are talking about, so if it wasn't Nolan Gromacki being interviewed after the game, anyone would be able to take about this and be educated on what it is that we are playing for and supporting, rather than just seeing we're playing out there with some teal socks on."
The life lessons for Bieser's group surrounding Its On Us go much deeper than a single night once a year over the course of a 56-game season. He signed the entire team up for a Green Dot conference and has continued the education and promotion of an assault-free campus throughout the year.
"The last thing we want to do is start something and not finish it," Bieser said. "Once we start something, the goal is to make sure we finish and make it better. I think every guy here – our seniors are trying to make this place better when they leave it. That's the same thing from our coaching staff to every player in our program."
Bieser and his team then invited Schafer and Chris Walters from Mizzou's Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention Center to meet with the team and continue the dialogue. The message from the two was bystander intervention and changing the culture that leads to sexual assault. The messages have resonated with the entire baseball program. With hundreds of Mizzou student-athletes in attendance Tuesday, the message has begun to resonate with the entire Mizzou student-athlete population.
It's On Us means, no matter how big or small your platform, YOU can use your voice to change the culture. Take the pledge at https://t.co/rjYLygYzTT today! pic.twitter.com/bYa4NuhTEC
— Tori Schafer (@ToriMSchafer) April 20, 2018
"I think it's a really big deal that we got together, that all the athletes decided to show up and really give way to this cause," senior OF Trey Harris said. "I think if we just make it a forefront in everything that we do, trying to do things right, trying to do things the right way, permission, not taking advantage of people, I think we'll be okay."
What started as a conversation between Gromacki and Bieser last year has grown into a rallying cry for the entire Mizzou Athletics student-athlete group. The entire Mizzou Athletic Department listened to a Green Dot presentation last month.
"It opens up those doors to have conversations in the locker rooms," Schafer told Dave Matter of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "That's an area where we always talk about 'locker room talk,' but this is a way to infiltrate the locker rooms and have Coach Bieser supporting and guiding those difficult conversations. It's really important to us. He's a guy you'd want your boys to play for."
Be The Change You Want to See
With Bieser and Gromacki leading the charge for Mizzou Athletics, Mizzou's chapter of It's On Us, with Schafer's leadership, has been busy on campus. The group has been working with government officials in Jefferson City and has endorsed a bill in the Missouri House of Representatives that aims to grow sexual education curriculum centered around consent in the state of Missouri.
We are so happy to announce that our bill is #1 on the Perfection calendar! A huge thanks to our policy committee for lobbying in Jefferson City today! pic.twitter.com/L0ezbaCVYR
— It's On Us Mizzou (@ItsOnUsMU) April 25, 2018
While Schafer is working on pushing legislation reform through the state government, Gromacki is busy spreading the message of It's On Us to athletes across the nation. Gromacki earned national praise from the Southeastern Conference last year, being selected as Mizzou's representative for the 'I Am the SEC' campaign, largely for his efforts surrounding It's On Us. He was also named to the SEC's Community Service Team and was nominated for the Lowes Senior Class Award by the University.
"The campaign is so important to me because I am an athlete and a lot of time, athletes are shown as aggressors and that's not the majority," Gromacki said. "Being able to push and show that our stance is that it's not okay, and we don't want that on campus at Mizzou. The messages we are trying to send, we are reaching a wide spectrum of people. For me, I wanted to be more than just a baseball player. This is something I will take pride in for the rest of my life."
Coach Bieser recruits with the idea of finding 'builders,' or student-athletes who can help build the program to the heights that he wants to see it grow. Now a senior, Gromacki can leave Mizzou knowing that the decision and contributions he made have left the campus, the athletic department, and the entire community in a better place than when he walked in a door as a freshman. That's a 'builder' that Coach Bieser can be proud of.
So who carries the torch for Mizzou when Gromacki graduates? Good thing Coach Bieser has a locker room full of players who are ready to take that on.
"I can see a bunch of players," Bieser said. "We want a lot of guys like that in our program. We want to see more and more guys get into things like this. We always talk about getting outside of ourselves and get into our teammates and our community. We want 35 guys on the roster just like Nolan."
