sportsed@ clackam as.edu
The Clackamas P rin t"/
Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012
League drops ball with
Coaches vs. Cancer
By John William Howard
'Sports Editor
It’s always great to see a team reach out .to
help those less fortunate. You see athletes from
the junior high level all the way up to the pro
fessional leagues that give their time to others
around them. O ne cause that is particularly
close to home is Coaches vs. Cancer,, some
thing that the Northwest Athletic Association
of Community Colleges participated in this
last week.
• It’s touching, really. In some ways a show
o f humility, in others a glaring example, it
reminds us that were all in this together, no
matter whom we are. It’s also a huge opportu
nity to spread the word about a certain cause.
Athletic programs draw a large number of
eyes, making them a perfect source of atten
tion for concerns such as child abuse, home
lessness, poverty and cancer.
It would make sense that events staged
to raise awareness for cancer, much like the
NWAACC s games oyer the last week, would
be staged to get maximum attention. At least
at Clackamas, there are a few things that
they’ve done right. Number one is the bright
pink tie-dye shirts that both the volleyball
team and the womens basketball team have
worn on game night. Also, the basketball
coaches wear white sneakers with their suits,
Men’s coach C lif Wegner sporting his custom
ary white converse all-stars.
O n top o f that, proceeds from the game
along with donations go to help fight cancer,
which seems noble, right?
Wrong. The problem is that the stands are
completely empty, and that’s not right. There
are several reasons for the stands being empty
and that blame falls on several different heads.
The first reason is plain and simple. People
won’t come out to see what they know will be
an absolute drubbing, which is exactly what
happened last Wednesday against Portland
Community College. PC C came into last
week’s Jan. 25 matchups a combined 4-27
record between the men’s and womens teams.
All four o f those wins were by the women, and
two o f the four were forfeits. The result o f that
was a less than spotty crowd that not even the
boisterous cross country and volleyball teams
could cover up.
So much for raising awareness.
The situation was much the same in the
fall, when the volleyball team took on a pitiful
Multnomah team with only nine players on
their roster. That game ended up just as bad,
with the girls in pink flattening the visiting
iris in dark blue so badly that there wasn’t
ardly any time to notice that the crowd was
non-existent.
The second reason is also, obvious. Unless
you had your ear tuned toward the athletic
department or knew the patterns o f the stars,
you wouldn’t have known that it wasn’t any
thing but a regular season game until you
walked in and saw thé smattering o f pink
around the gym. The blame for that falls on
the athletic department. If they really want
to make a statement about their solidarity
against cancer and their support for those who
fight it, they need to advertise themselves and
fifl up their gym.
The blame for the scheduling is a little
harder to tack down. The sneakers with suits’
tradition isn’t specific to the NWAACC, and
it’s not simply done at the school or athletic
league’s choosing. Its a national occurrence
at all different levels o f basketball. That, how
ever, means that everybody who is anybody
knows exactly when it’s happening long in
advance^ far ahead enough to plan something
Follow C C C Athletics
@Clackamas_CC
@JowardHoward
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m ore exciting than P C C com ing to town.
Im not saying that PC C should have sat
idle last week while the big boys (and girls)
fought it out, but you’d think that the people
planning out the schedule could have chosen
something a little more interesting. Why not
schedule Clackamas and M t. Hood to dash
on the same night as Coaches vs. Cancer? The
stands are packed full of students, community
members, families and all manner of fans any
time that Clackamas and Mt. Hood meet,
making it a much better choice when trying
to raise awareness.
Yes, Clackamas did donate around $500
to fight cancer but the NWAACC dropped
the ball on this one. If the NFL can schedule
Detroit to play on Thanksgiving every year,
then the NWAACC can choose the games for
the Coaches vs. Cancer week better.
n
¡” s C tÆ O C A J M Æ f
C O M M U N IT Y
C O L L E G E
D o w n lo a d o u r n e w
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Head Coach C lif Wegner dons white sneakers fo r Coaches vs. Cancer Week last
season in the Randall H all gymnasium. The “sneakers with suits” tradition is known
within the NW AACC league and local colleges, as well as at the national level. This
year’s event a t CCC teas sparsley attended, but the event still raised around $500.
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