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The Nashville Christian Lady Eagles will once again don pink for a basketball game with the goal of raising money for breast cancer awareness.
Thursday’s match up for the school’s girls’ basketball team will have the Jo Byrns Lady Red Devils battling the pink-clad Lady Eagles for the school’s second annual Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Pink Zone initiative.
Nashville Christian joined the effort last year with the intent to raise awareness and money for the Nashville chapter of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund.
Yow, the former North Carolina State University women’s basketball coach and a past president and founding member of the WBCA, died last year after losing her battle with cancer.
During last year’s Pink Zone game on Feb. 6, the Lady Eagles beat Houston County, 56-43. The gym was converted into a sea of pink as the players, students, faculty and community members all sported pink.
Between donations and the student-purchased “Hoops for Hope” T-shirts, last year’s game raised a total of $3,500.
“The outpouring of support from everybody was incredible,” NCS athletic director Ben Martin said of last year’s game. “It’s amazing in a small school like ours the amount of families affected by breast cancer.”
Martin’s two sisters are breast cancer survivors.
The disease also has touched the lives of some of the Lady Eagles. Player Tori Hulan’s grandmother, also a survivor, attended last year’s game.
“She was really touched when we all came out in our pink jerseys,” Hulan said.
After that game, Martin said: “Our hope is for the event to grow bigger and bigger so we can keep writing bigger and bigger checks to the foundation.”
Nashville Christian will offer free admission to breast cancer survivors from the community. Survivors will be recognized during the game and will receive custom pink T-shirts.
“We hope that all of these activities will make a huge impact for giving people hope for a cure and creating awareness among our students about breast cancer,” Martin said of the upcoming game. “We expect every student, girls and boys, to be wearing pink.”
