Strike Out Cancer Awareness Plans for Future Games

 By OHS Torch Reporters, Hannah Smith & Blade Mathews

On Wednesday, May 13^th, the OHS softball team had their final home game against Normal Community, featuring their highlighter pink colored shirts to support breast cancer awareness.

In previous years, the Lady Spartans had this game with Dee-Mack high school. Last year, both teams played on Dee-Mack’s home field and supported one of their fans who had been affected by breast cancer, a woman named Tammy.

Originally, the “Strike out Cancer” game was created by Laughing Dog Graphics owner, Kenny Williams. With Dee-Mack taking over recently, we had different names for the t-shirts. Such as, “Swinging for a Cure”, and “We love Tammy” the past 2 years.

This year, the Dee-Mack tradition stopped due to t-shirt conflicts. Instead, the softball team played them for their senior day/Oly Fire recognition day. The OHS softball team worked with Laughing Dog this year to squeeze in the tradition of having a pink-out game.

OHS Varsity Softball coach, Al Canopy, said he plans to organize better next year. He wishes to get more involvement for Laughing Dog, due to the successful new uniforms the company created for the Lady Spartans this year along with warm ups for the team and sweatshirts/t-shirts available for purchase for the fans/parents of the girls.

Coach Canopy said he wishes to involve a couple teams for a round robin tournament next year, featuring “Strike out Cancer” t-shirts. Another goal would be to get the baseball team involved, by having them wear the shirts and support the cause as well.

The baseball team hasn’t ever had a breast cancer awareness game. It would be a great addition, considering more money would be raised through the purchase of the t-shirts (which, money is donated toward the cause).

A goal for the future would be to get all of Olympia sporting events to have a “pink” represented game on the same day. Spring sports include baseball, softball, track, and girls’ soccer. If each could work to organize a home game on the same day/work out the t-shirts with fans and players, OHS could be painted pink for the cure.