For more than 75 years, cancer has been the leading cause of death in the United States. According to the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute, 1 out of every 3 people are diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lifetime. However, it affects everyone in some way, whether that’s a family member, a friend, or whomever, everyone is affected by cancer.
On Feb. 19, during the boys head varsity coach Chip Sodemann’s speech at the annual coaches vs. cancer assembly, the bleachers were suddenly filled with students and teachers raising their hands to show that they have been affected by cancer in some way.
“The whole idea of the coaches vs. cancer society, is to bring awareness, as you can see by pretty much everybody in the gym raising their hand,” Sodemann said. “Cancer just impacts everybody in some way shape or form.”
For the past week, students and teachers have been donating money to raffles for a chance to win a multitude of prizes, such as gift basket, a visitors parking spot for the rest of the year, and the chance to pie a teacher in the face at the annual coaches vs. cancer assembly. All of those proceeds went to the American Cancer Society in hopes to help the organization and everyone affected by cancer.
While the week of coaches vs. cancer is the most cancer attentive week out of the year that the school does, the boys varsity basketball team starts way earlier. In early January, the team set out to Hope Lodge, a place where cancer patients from around the country can get free living while getting their treatments. The team was there all night serving food to the residents of Hope Lodge, playing games with them, and so much more.
During the assembly Student Council members Jacob Jones (11) and Konner Tenge (11) led the school through the many events that were put on. Some of these events included performances by, dance, Student Council, the annual cheer/teacher dance, a relay race for each grade, a 3pt contest, and a wig snatching game between the teachers.
Student Council organizes this event every year, trying to portray a special message to the students about how cancer affects everyone. However to really get the grasp of cancer, a representative from the American Cancer Society came in to talk about the impact of cancer.
“We had one of the reps come in and really break down what the organization stood for like what Sodemann was explaining,” Jones said. “Just really becoming an ally of the organization in a sense and doing our best to promote it, we make shirts and everything to do our best to really get the word out there.”
Sodemann always gives a speech during the assembly about how cancer has affected himself and how it affects everyone. His goal is to hopefully impact someone and their families with his speech; which he did.
“Yesterday I was up here for a junior Eagles practice and a dad was on the side that I’d never seen in my life and he came up to me and he said, ‘hey coach I just wanted to let you know your speech was awesome’ and I said ‘well thank you very much’ and then he said that he saw it on tiktok,” Sodemann said. “And I thought, well if that’s where it’s going then that’s great.”
The annual Coaches vs. Cancer assembly and basketball game is a Liberty staple, making sure everyone knows about the terrible effects that cancer has on every single person.
