DAYTON, Ohio — Anthony Grant is best known as the men’s basketball coach at the University of Dayton. But he’s also a husband and a father, who has had to deal with the unimaginable grief of losing his only daughter to suicide.
Now, his family hopes by sharing their story, they can provide hope for anyone who is struggling.
What You Need To Know
- Jayda Grant, the daughter of Chris Grant and Anthony Grant, the UD basketball coach, died by suicide last year
- Chris and Anthony share they were unaware of all the resources available to people and families struggling with mental illness
- The family wanted to make "purpose through their pain" and set up a basketball exhibition game and town hall to help share their story and others to help the community get the resources they may need
- Chris and Anthony hope to keep their daughter's legacy alive while helping others who need it
It’s been nearly a year and a half since Jayda Grant passed away. She was just 20 years old. Her parents remember her as an athletic girl who was always up to compete with her three brothers.
“She enjoyed competing and sort of doing the things that her brothers were doing,” Chris Grant, Anthony’s wife and Jayda’s mother said. “She was just a fun, happy-go-lucky little girl. I just remember being so excited to have a little girl to have an opportunity to braid hair and dress her up, but she ended up being my little tomboy.”
Jayda loved playing sports, gravitating toward running.
“She played flag football, she did softball, basketball, but she ended up developing a love for running,” Anthony Grant said. “So as she got into her teen years, that took over.”
In the spring of her freshman year at the University of Dayton, the pandemic hit. Between not being able to run track for the Flyers and recovering from a knee injury, Anthony and Chris Grant noticed their daughter’s struggle.
“She just didn’t smile as much and just appeared to be very withdrawn," Chris Grant said.
Now, the Grants are hoping to share their story to help families who may be in a similar situation.
“Until it really hits your family or hits close to home, it’s different," Anthony Grant said. "And I think a part of the reason why my wife and I felt we wanted to speak out on this situation after our tragedy was because a lot of the resources that are available we didn’t know about.”
Anthony is the Flyers basketball coach and this year decided to use his family’s experience to help others.
“We wanted to try to bring purpose to the pain that we were going through right?" Anthony said. "It’s not going to make a difference necessarily for us, but if we could make a difference for someone else, then that brings a little purpose to the pain that we’ll have for the rest of our lives. And so we knew we wanted to do something.”
That something meant a charity exhibition game at UD Arena against Ohio State, with all proceeds benefiting the Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation and the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Ohio. The events will start with The Spotlight, a town hall for the entire community shining a light on mental health and wellness in adolescents and young adults.
“In our situation, we really weren’t aware of where to turn," Chris Grant said. "So I think this event is just more about bringing awareness and letting the community know that there’s support out there.”
“It just kind of all came together," Anthony Grant said. "I think it’s going to be emotional. But at the end of the day, I think our hope is that we provide some hope where people can look and say despite the tragedy that the Grants have experienced, they’re still here and they’re trying to help other people.”
It's not the legacy they had hoped for for Jayda, but the Grants hope sharing her story will help save others like her.
“It won’t bring our daughter back," Anthony Grant said. "But if it can make a difference for someone else, that’s what we’re wanting to do.”
The town hall begins at 6 p.m. Thursday. Oct. 19, and is open to all ages, but will focus on high school students through young adults. The exhibition game is sold out and is Sunday, Oct. 21, at 6 p.m. at UD Arena.
If you or someone you know is in a mental crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.