Sports

Lady Dukes Think Pink for Anual Breast Cancer Awareness Game

Reporter Cara O'Biern

During breast cancer awareness month, on October 10, 2018, the Varsity and Junior Varsity field hockey teams participated in their annual “Pink Out” game. This year the teams faced Smithfield. During this game, both field hockey teams wear all the pink and play as hard as they can in support of the women who have fought against breast cancer.

The Junior Varsity team outscored their opponent 12-0, and the varsity 6-0. The Varsity team started off with only one goal in the first half, but then finished the second half ten minutes early after scoring five to add another mercy rule to their season, making their record 15-0. Goals came from Kessa Romero, Cara O’Beirne, HP Johnson, Allison Goodwin, and Kate Neikirk. They played hard and scored as many as they could as they played for the women that they know fighting against breast cancer. Every player played with class and passion as they honored the women that are currently fighting.

Everyone on the team is so close to one another that when something happens to another's family, it impacts everyone on the team. After every practice and before every game, the varsity team likes to cheer “Ohana”, which means family. The concept emphasizes that families, like the team, are bound together and members must cooperate and remember one another. This applies to the team not only during games, but in their daily lives.

The athletes like having the opportunity to show their support for the people they know, on and off the field. Before every game, the players stand in a circle and pray that every game goes well and that they all stay safe. For this game, Ainsley Miller, a junior on the field hockey team said “I play that game for both my grandmas who battled breast cancer and luckily won. I know there are a lot of women out there who don’t, so during the prayer before the game I prayed to thank God for them being okay and I prayed for the families of those who didn’t make it through.”

The field hockey teams recognize that it is the parents that help so much to make their winning seasons happen, and they also want to let the parents know that they recognize what some of them could be going through. This game is a game that tries to give back to those parents and family members that help so much. Therefore, along with the game, there was a tent that was set up beside the field where parents took donations during the two games in exchange for baked goods and beverages. Altogether, the teams raised a total of $251.33 in one night, which went towards breast cancer research, through the Play for the Cure national foundation.

This game not only means a lot to the players, but it also means a lot to the parents and breast cancer survivors. There are many women all over the world fighting breast cancer, and not only the field hockey team, but many teams at GHS do all they can in order to support breast cancer awareness and help raise money to go towards finding a cure. Although the girls work hard, their hard work can’t come close to the fight that the women fighting breast cancer are waging.