Patriots and Indians are thinking pink (09/08/07)

"It's a stolen idea," said Fred Medler, "but it's a good one."

So good, in fact, that both the Patriots and the Indians are taking part in the theft.

The idea started in 2006 when two family friends of Sycamore (Ohio) High School senior volleyball player Sarah McGrath were diagnosed with breast cancer. McGrath and her mother came up with the idea for a cancer awareness match, and the ball was rolling.

McGrath contacted former club volleyball teammate Carolyn Gagliardi, a senior co-captain at Loveland High School, and both teams began promoting the match. With approval from the OHSAA in hand, the match drew more than 1,100 fans, most dressed in pink shirts, to watch two teams in pink uniforms play a match officiated by referees donning pink as well.

The event resulted in a donation of almost $5,000 to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

A year later, both Jay County and Fort Recovery high schools are planning similar events.

The Patriots will host their cancer awareness match Thursday, Sept. 20, against the Class 2A No. 4 Wes-Del Warriors, and the Indians will follow Oct. 9 when they play the St. Henry Redskins.

Medler, Jay County's coach for the last decade, learned about the Loveland/Sycamore match from Volleyball USA magazine, which he receives through his involvement in off-season club programs.

He contacted long-time friend and Wes-Del coach Chuck Wallen, and the two agreed to the cancer awareness match at JCHS this year with the Patriots hoping to return the favor when they visit Gaston in 2008.

"We try to teach the girls that life is more than just volleyball and that you need to give back," said Medler. "This is one way that as a program we can step forward and (do that). Cancer is something that effects all of us, and has affected all of us, in some way or some form."

Rammel learned about the original match from a different angle.

Since the match between Loveland and Sycamore, two Cincinnati area schools, the OHSAA and Ohio High School Volleyball Coaches Association have taken the idea and ran with it. A about what is now called "Volley for the Cure" was part of a coaches' clinic Rammel attended in August.

"They loved they idea," she said, recalling the first day of practice when she told her players about the possibility of such a match. "It was just a matter of finding a home match ... and it was getting to the point where I couldn't find anybody. Everybody was already doing it with another team."

But when Rammel contacted St. Henry, which was already involved in a cancer awareness match with New Knoxville, the Redskins saw no reason why they couldn't do it twice.

Off the top of his head, Medler ran down a list of just some of the people in his life who have been affected by cancer, including Shelley Teagle, wife of JCHS basketball coach Craig Teagle, for whom more than $1,000 was raised during a collection at a Jay County boys basketball game last season. Laura Castillo, a freshman on the Patriot volleyball team, has an aunt currently battling cancer, and former JCHS player Miranda Tingley's mother, Minerva, died of cancer Aug. 27. Nancy Valentine, Medler's neighbor and a former bus driver for Jay Schools, died of cancer within the last year.

"I've been through that with two uncles that I've had to sit with and watch die," said Medler, continuing his list. "And (former Blackford coach Kim Stump) is a really close friend of mine through the volleyball family."

For the Jay County event, the players are selling pre-sale tickets for $10. Those tickets, which will be sold through Wednesday, include a T-shirt - it will read, "Volleyball - One team, one fight" - which fans can wear to the JCHS/Wes-Del match and receive free admission.

People who purchases a pre-sale ticket will also get a paper volleyball on which to print the name of a person in their lives who has battled cancer. Those volleyballs, which will also be sold the day of the match, will be posted in the Jay County gym.

All of the proceeds from pre-sale tickets, regular tickets sold on the day of the event and the individual volleyballs will be donated to the Jay County Cancer Society.

"We can step forward, and as a program that services girls, can say, "Let's see what we can do for this," said Medler, noting that while the two teams on the court are battling against each other, we are all on the same team in the fight against cancer. "It may be a small token ... but every little bit helps."

Also as part of the program, Shirley Dollar of the Jay County Cancer Society and also a cancer survivor, visited the team last week.

"There's a lot more people than you really think," said Patriot senior Stephanie Wellman of those who receive assistance from the local organization. "She said they help 75 to 100 people a year, but that's not even everybody.

"Everybody, even if you don't know them personally, you know somebody that had cancer," Wellman added, mentioning Doug Tipton, a JCHS teacher and assistant baseball coach, who also had a recent bout with the disease. "(And) Even though we don't really know Laura's aunt, it still affects us, because Laura's on our team."

The Fort Recovery team will also be offering T-shirts. They will be sold for $5 and will be available at all home Indian volleyball and football games from Sept. 20 through the day of the match against St. Henry.

The shirts will give free admission to students for that match, and adult admission will be $2. A percentage of the proceeds will go to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, as well as all the money earned in a 50/50 drawing.

"I want them to feel what it's like to give to something worthwhile," said Rammel, "and to be able to know that what they did raised money for the number one killer of women.

"Every single one of them knows somebody who has been effected with breast cancer."

And for anyone lucky enough to have not had their life somehow affected by cancer, JCHS senior Sharon Dirksen best summed up why attendance at one, or, better yet, both, of these matches is important.

"If it affects one person," Dirksen said, "it affects everyone."[[In-content Ad]]