West Virginia High School Spreading the Message of Lauren's Wish

Most of the important action took place before Rebecca Chmiel and Zoe Mackey scored four goals apiece and Kelsie Kyle added a hat trick as the University High School girls’ lacrosse team beat Morgantown High 14-6 last Thursday.

Before the opening draw, the rival schools in West Virginia recognized Lauren’s Wish, an organization that raises awareness of Substance Use Disorder (SUD) and Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) while offering an emerging solution to addiction treatment that fills a gap in the recovery process.

As it has all season, UHS warmed up in gold and blue pinnies imprinted with “Lauren’s Wish” and her No. 8. Before each game this year — at home and on the road — they have shared an announcement over the public address system about Lauren’s Wish.

“As long as there’s an issue, I believe our girls and our team will create awareness,” UHS coach Kevin Armstrong said. “Until this goes away, and it’s not going away. For the foreseeable future, it’s an ongoing mission we’ve adopted and will continue as a team.”

Lauren’s Wish is named for Lauren Cole, who scored 100 goals in her career at UHS. The Hawks’ attacker was one of just three players to reach that milestone before she graduated in 2012 as an all-state selection.

“She was a high goal scorer,” said Jeanne Dreisbach, who coached UHS and calls Cole one of the top five players she had in her 15 years leading the program. “She was very consistent. I could count on at least three goals a game from her. She’d come in for a timeout and I’d say, ‘Lauren, go get me one.’ And she would.”

Lauren was still in high school when she became addicted to opiates after experimenting with her boyfriend. She battled to stay clean even as she earned a degree in social work at West Virginia University, where she twice competed for the school at National Cheerleaders Association Collegiate Cheer Nationals. She had excelled at soccer at a young age, played softball, danced, loved to ski and snowboard and hunted and fished. She pursued her Master’s in social work and worked in foster care and with those recovering from addiction.

“She was one hell of an individual,” said Lauren’s father, Mike Cole. “If you were having a bad day, she was somebody you wanted to have around you. She just brought you up immediately. Anything she tackled was absolutely electric. I don’t know of anything she couldn’t do.”

Lauren’s concern for others was constant, but she had her own battle with OUD. On July 9, 2020, isolated after being exposed to COVID-19, Cole relapsed and died after being poisoned by a pill that was laced with fentanyl, an all-too-familiar story in the growing national opioid epidemic.

“I was scrolling through Facebook and saw ‘RIP Lauren,’” Dreisbach said. “It felt like the bottom fell out of my world.”

Lauren was only 26. She left behind her father, who found Lauren unresponsive in her car, and her mother Cherie, along with an older sister and brother, grandparents and countless friends.

“Every day is a challenge, to be honest with you,” her father said. “It’s something you’re never going to move past. Each day is a struggle for my wife and I as well as the rest of our family.”

Cole began Lauren’s Wish to fulfill a promise to his daughter. Just three weeks before Lauren’s death, she had expressed a wish to her father that they work together to help those suffering from addiction who did not have enough family support or resources. Lauren’s Wish in Morgantown, W.V., opened a facility in October 2022. It offers free, safe and non-judgmental housing and support immediately to an individual rather than risking returning them to an environment in which they could relapse while awaiting treatment options. Local Morgantown hospitals are starting to send patients directing to Lauren’s Wish after an overdose or episode. A website (laurenswish.org) contains referral help and testimonials.

“My goal,” Cole said, “is to see it through and hopefully keep another family from experiencing what my wife and I and our family go through on a daily basis, and to help heal those that are suffering as well as educate our community.”

UHS is doing its part at games to share Lauren’s story, information about Lauren’s Wish and the importance of helping those suffering from SUD. It started last year with a Lauren’s Wish Night.

“We introduced it to the fan base,” Armstrong said. “They didn’t really know what it was. This year, we went a little farther with it.”

The pinnies are a new addition, and they get important conversation started. The gold and blue don’t match the UHS school colors, so they stand out and get crowds curious about Lauren’s Wish. And this year, Armstrong asks the away team’s PA announcer to share a statement about Lauren’s Wish before each game. Nobody has refused to read it, and St. Alban’s in Charleston, W.V., surprised UHS when they read their own version of a message geared toward SUD awareness.

“They had been following us on social media,” Armstrong said. “They’d been watching what we’d been doing, and then they read their own thing and gave 10 percent of the gate to Lauren’s Wish. That was really, really cool that they’re seeing it and hearing it and they actually did something to help us.”

Lauren’s Wish Night had a special ceremony this year. Not only was Lauren’s family there, but so was Dreisbach. UHS offered a game ball to the Lauren’s Wish executive director, and there wasn’t a dry eye when the current Hawks team captains surprised the family with Lauren’s original jersey.

“I think it brought everything together,” Armstrong said. “They’re 15, 16, 17 years old. They’re not worried about this type of stuff. But I’m glad we’re doing it because I think they need to be aware of it. It could grab anybody at any moment.”

The CDC estimated in its most recent report that there were more than 107,000 drug overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2021. Overdose deaths from synthetic opioids like fentanyl that essentially poison the user have been rising annually. Deaths involving synthetic opioids have jumped 80 percent during the past two years.

“My message today is if you hear something or see something, or even suspect something, you have to share it, say something,” Cole said.

Armstrong has seen his team benefit from promoting awareness of Lauren’s Wish. It’s encouraged players to be more caring toward others and to acknowledge there’s more than what’s on the surface.

“It’s helped them be able to show more compassion to others in the school, others their age, not judging them just immediately based on what they look like or how they act,” he said. “So, I think it’s created some awareness inside our girls beyond the fentanyl and the opioid and the drug addiction, that says there are other girls and boys out there that could be struggling with something and you’re not aware of, so show some compassion.”

Lauren’s Wish held its second fashion show fundraiser on Tuesday. It was a complete sellout, just as their first fashion show was (and both golf tournaments). The rest of the funding for Lauren’s Wish has come through private donations. Cole would like to expand services, but that won’t happen without state and federal funding. Lauren’s Wish aims to secure further treatment for an individual suffering from SUD within a week but stays thus far have ranged from 2-43 days.

“Unfortunately, there’s a tremendous need,” Cole said. “We haven’t even held our grand opening yet. Everything has just been through word of mouth and the emergency rooms, and we’ve already had 136 clients.”

Cole says that UHS’s commitment to promoting Lauren’s Wish is helping. Lauren’s Wish is fielding calls from across the state as people are introduced to the organization and an important recovery step as more learn of the resource.

“For that team to grab Lauren’s Wish and take it throughout the state and talk to people, it just helps spread the word and educate and prompts the questions,” Cole said. “This disease does not discriminate. It can affect anyone and everyone. To have the school take something that has such a stigma around it, and not bat an eye and travel with it and display it was just an amazing feat on their part and very much appreciated.”

Their mission has augmented one of UHS’s most promising seasons. The Hawks are 12-3 with a pair of one-goal losses to state juggernaut Fairmont, which they could see for a third time if both reach the postseason championship. Promoting Lauren’s Wish has them hoping to take on an even bigger battle.

“If we can save one person,” Dreisbach said, “it’s a success.”