On Friday night, October 8, Marietta hosts Comanche with kickoff scheduled for 7:30. Prior to the game, beginning at 7 p.m., a couple of special ceremonies will be held.
In addition to honoring seniors from football, band, cheerleading, and cross country, a Pink Out ceremony, hosted by the high school student council and advisor Becky Jones, will pay tribute to Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Players, cheerleaders, student council members, and the rest of the school gang will all be wearing pink, and they’re asking fans to do the same.
The history of Pink Out begins in 1985, with October being named Breast Cancer Awareness Month. In 1993, the pink ribbon was adopted as a symbol of hope and awareness.
The first ever official Pink Out game was the idea of a young lady, Ellese Meyer, a senior cheerleader who had very recently lost her mother to breast cancer. To honor her mother’s fight, Ellese wanted to turn the football stadium pink in memory of her mom and to raise money for the Young Women’s Breast Cancer Awareness Foundation.
From that game at Mount Lebanon High School in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, the Pink Out phenomenon quickly spread across the country in sports venues from high schools all the way up to the pros.
In Marietta, the first Cancer Awareness game was played during the 2008-2009 basketball season by then-coach Duane Shaw’s Lady Indians, a team that included student athletes who grew up to be coaches Tanica Anderson and Kamiah Anderson, among others.
“Some of the girls had seen other teams wearing the pink shirts for breast cancer awareness and came to me with the idea of us doing it,” Shaw said. “We had people in our school who had fought cancer – some won the battle and some lost – so it was personal for us, and I thought it was a great idea.”
The next year, the football team picked up the mantle and Marietta had its first Pink Out game, and they’ve been having them ever since.
On Friday night, student council students will have signs and decorations placed around McClain Stadium, and there will be a recognition of survivors and a moment of silence for those who have not survived.
“We know that we have several people at school who are breast cancer survivors and it’s important for us to honor them,” Jones explained, “but we never know who is battling, and when it’s closer to home than we think. That’s why it’s important for us to do this, to be an encouragement for those who are still fighting the fight and to remember those who have lost the battle.”