Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
Bill Wampler has had a major impact on the Wright State basketball program since transferring from Drake, earning All-Horizon League honors and helping the Raiders win games at a higher clip than ever before.
His impact around campus may be harder to measure, but it’s been infinitely more substantial and figures to be longer lasting, since it deals with real-life issues.
Wampler went public about his ongoing battle with depression for the first time in November 2018 while interviewed by the Dayton Daily News. He showed off a tattoo with a mental-health slogan, “The sun will rise and we will try again.” He displayed another that reflects his passion for suicide prevention that says, “Stay Alive.”
The senior forward — who will be honored with classmates Cole Gentry and Jordan Ash on Senior Day at the IUPUI game at 2 p.m. Sunday — had suffered in silence because of the stigma attached to mental illness, especially for men. But he decided to open up because he thought it might be helpful for others.
He did another article on depression and anxiety last November along with women’s soccer star Destiny Johnson for the school newspaper, The Wright State Guardian.
“It’s a lot more common than people understand, especially in this day and age. Things happen all the time, and everyone handles trauma and grief in different ways,” he said.
“I’ve probably struck up thousands of conversations with just random people. People are DM-ing me on Twitter and saying, ‘Hey, I appreciate it. How’d you get through this?’ I’m more than willing to talk to anybody about anything.”
