Hilltown people - Mark Biagini

“I’m lucky to be a coach,” Mark Biagini said, sitting at his desk after answering the first of three phone calls that came during our interview. Mark has played sports since his highschool years and found a special interest in football, which he coached earlier in his career. Currently, he coaches wrestling at Mohawk Trail Regional High School where he also works as a Clinical Coordinator (or adjustment counselor) and has been a licensed mental health counselor for 15 years. He attended Westfield State University for counseling and psychology, and started his first work in the mental health field as a social worker. In our interview, he compared counseling and social work saying, “counseling isn’t always easy,” but he enjoys it more than social work because he can be with his clients more often, whereas it was only weekly visits with social work. Mark also says he likes being able to be more “present and available” for his family because student and staff breaks mostly align.

In high school, Mark often didn't have anyone home with him and had a reputation for behavior issues. He often hid from classes in the locker rooms with friends. Though this began to change when Mark began meeting with his school's adjustment counselor. “He made sure I stayed out of jail and went to college.” School became a “safe space” for Mark and it felt nice he had someone that accepted who he was, knew what was going on in his personal life, and wanted to help. Over time, Mark noticed that when he was getting into trouble he could almost hear his counselors voice in his head and it could help him in bad situations.

Mark’s interest in wrestling isn't directly correlated with his work in the mental health field on purpose, but there are definitely some comparisons he makes between the lines of work. He also voiced how he was interested in sports a long time before he was interested in the mental health field, as a current wrestling coach he also takes an interest in martial art which pushes him towards being a more skilled coach for wrestling.

He believes both coaches and counselors have a huge impact on teens' self-esteem/lives and they need to be able to set a good example. In the end of our interview, I asked Mark about the prominence of mental health in our current society. His opinion is the current prominence of mental health in our world is due to a combination of many things, it's more openly talked about in society but also current science diagnostics are a lot more advanced. He also states he believes people don’t realize and take in the impact sleep and nutrition have on mental health and how you live.

Mark stated that he enjoys that "people who don't know me still know who I am." He hopes through his work he can bring awareness to the fact that only focusing on the struggles and hardships in life can really burn you out. He wants people to remember that everyone is fighting their own battles and you really have to just treat everyone with kindness to get through.

Mark related his ideas of mental health to his own hobbies, saying we seem to rush everything now and people really just need to slow down and stop for a second to think about things a little deeper. He related this to his love for the outdoors with things such as long fishing trips, hunting, hiking, and outdoor sports. Being "off the grid" is no stranger to him. These hobbies are reflected throughout Mark's house, each one taking up their own individual spot in what Mark claimed to be "his own little museum" of his life.

In his day to day life, Mark deals with his own mental health and is still working towards his own goals in life. He's a big asset in the school community, Brendan Leowolf, a colleague of Mark’s claims, “"Mark is one of the most calm and level-headed people I've worked with in schools. He is also just a generally nice person to talk to, whether it's about our families or fishing or an issue with a student, he is a reliable support."

Everyday, he continues to remind anyone who needs it that, "it really does always get better."