This page is dedicated to the Kicking Cancer Challenge which we hope is an annual “competition” between the West Plains Lady Zizzers and the Camdenton Lady Lakers as they help raise the awareness of cancer and help raise money for the fight against cancer.
For 2010, the teams set a goal to each raise $1500 (And raised $4400). The money raised went to the American Cancer Society and Camdenton will gave some money to the Jaxon Downen family as Jaxon courageously battles leukemia (Jaxon is a student in the Camdenton School District). The Teams have been sold White T-shirts so people could help “White Out” Cancer aswell as other ways to help raise money. The events culminated on April 20, 2010 as the teams met in Ozark Conference Soccer Matches at West Plains. The teams will wore special jerseys for the game. West Plains wore Lavendar (The Awareness color for Cacner in General) and Camdenton wore Yellow (The Awareness color for Childhood Cancer). Goalkeepers for West Plains wore Pink (The Awareness color for Breast Cancer). The teams will used special Pink “The Cure” Game Balls by Select. The Balls are special Awareness Balls and were autographed by the players and auctioned off after the games. West Plains raised slightly more money than Camdenton and the Lady Zizzers shaved Camdenton coach JD Hunter’s hair. Mindy Lahey Hughston, a WPHS graduate whose Husband (Derek Hughston) and sister (Amanda Lahey Holmes) both played soccer at WPHS, soke to the teams about her battles with cancer. The Howell County Relay For Life Committee was also in attendance to hand out information provided by the American Cancer Society.
The Lady Zizzers had additional speakers leading up to the April 20th finale. The first of those speakers was former Zizzer athlete and former WPHS Teacher and Coach Jake Long. All three of Jake’s sisters played soccer for the Lady Zizzers (Melynni, Amanda, and Julie). Jake spoke to the girls on February 25. He shared with the girls his story of battling cancer. (See the picture below – taken by Randy Hunt of R&R Photography)
Jake Long and the Lady Zizzers
The March Speaker was Scott Cressman, a WPHS graduate and father of current Zizzer Soccer Player Trevor Cressman. He spoke to the girls about his battle with cancer on March 23. Thank You to everyone who helped make this event a success!
How it all began – On April 16, 2009, we received an email from Debbie Atkinson , the Girls Soccer Coach at Mountain Home, AR. We were scheduled to play at Mountain Home that afternoon. Debbie said they had some special things going on for the game and wanted to let us know about them. A 4th grade girl in the Mountain Home School District who is a big soccer fan was battling cancer. Her name is Janessa (I hope I spelled it correctly). She goes to Little Rock every 2 weeks for chemotherapy treatments. She wanted to see the Lady Bombers play. She is in between treatments and the weather was nice today, so everything was perfect.
Janessa was made an Honorary Lady Bomber Captain for the game, complete with her own Captain’s armband. The Lady Bombers also presented her with an autographed soccer ball. Since Janessa was a Captain for the game, she called the coin toss. We also brought along our own gift for Janessa, a jersey signed by the Lady Zizzers. The picture below is Janessa and her Dad with the West Plains Lady Zizzers.
Janessa and the Lady Zizzers
Janessa stayed and watched the game for awhile. She seemed to be kind of overwhelmed by all that went on. I think she was very touched by it all. I know we were. We told the Girls “You should be proud of what you were a part of tonight. It will mean more than the score of any game you play.” The Winner that night was Janessa.
While looking for information on our new District opponents for 2009, I came across the Warrensburg soccer website. The Tigers have a Pink Game to raise awareness of cancer and raise some money for the fight against cancer. I talked to their coach Chris Thompson about what they do and thought it was a incredible thing for their team to do.
As I thought about asking our girls to do something that would let them give something back to the community and allow them to be part of something that could change their lives, I also wanted to find a way to make it fun. What better way to make it fun then to have a competition. I sent an email to J.D. Hunter, the Head Coach of the Camdenton Lady Lakers asking if he would be interested in doing something to raise awareness of cancer and raise some money for the American Cancer Society. He liked the idea and things have took off from there.
