The breast cancer awareness campaign in which the NESCAC women's basketball teams participated over the weekend raised upwards of $5,000, according to Colby coach Lori Gear McBride, who organized the fundraising efforts.
As part of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association's (WBCA) "Pink Zone" initiative, the NESCAC's campaign raised money for the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund by selling pink T-shirts last week for a suggested donation of $10. In addition, players from all 10 conference teams wore the shirts, which featured each member school's logo embedded in a pink ribbon, during warm-ups prior to Saturday's games.
NESCAC schools participated individually in the WBCA's "Think Pink" fundraiser last year, but the conference did not organize a collective endeavor. McBride wanted the NESCAC to take its efforts to another level this season by sending a powerful, united message.
"Last year, a lot of the NESCAC coaches did different things to support the cause; it was kind of random, though, and I really wanted to do something more," McBride said. "The NESCAC is such a great conference, and I feel like there's such a sportsmanship amongst the coaches and the players. So I thought that if we could unify a little so that there was less randomness to our effort, then it could be so much better and bigger than it was."
The impetus for the NESCAC's organizing efforts came, in part, from the recent death of North Carolina State coach Kay Yow. After receiving her first diagnosis of breast cancer in 1987, the Naismith Hall of Famer and Olympic gold medalist fought an arduous public battle with the disease until she succumbed to it on Jan. 24 at the age of 66.
Yow's passing was particularly personal to McBride, who played against Yow's Wolfpack as a member of in-state and conference rival North Carolina from 1993 to 1997. The death of a respected adversary moved McBride to honor her memory in an ambitious way.
"Having played against Coach Yow, it was something that was pretty close to my heart," McBride said. "To know what kind of a great person she was and to see the progress that has been made with her efforts helped propel me to do something that was a little bit more bold, perhaps, than doing something with my own team. It really encouraged me to motivate all the other coaches, as well. I think Kay Yow was an inspiration and a driving force behind my efforts to get everybody on board."
Once McBride propagated the idea to other coaches in the conference, she found that they, too, were enthusiastic about joining the cause.
"I think all of the coaches in our league have a great understanding that not only are we worrying about basketball games, but also educating our young ladies and being role models for our campus communities," she said. "With the quality of coaches that we have in our conference, it wasn't a tough sell."
The end result of the campaign was Saturday's conference-wide display of support for breast cancer awareness. For Colby's game at Wesleyan, McBride described the scene as being "pretty pink out there." Meanwhile, the 625 fans who packed Cousens Gym for Tufts' matchup against Bates helped create a similar sea of pink, while players also donned pink shoelaces.
"I think Saturday was a good way to show our support for the fight against cancer and to be a united front with the whole NESCAC," Tufts coach Carla Berube said. "It was great to see everyone in their pink T-shirts. I didn't know Kay Yow personally, but I know a lot of people that either played for her or played against her teams, and you only hear great things about her and how hard she fought the disease. It was great that we could attribute the day to her and to the fight."
