Amid a long and heated history, two rivals on the gridiron have found some or a sport of very important common ground.
As Park City and Wasatch square off for the Region 10 championship and bragging rights for an entire year tomorrow night, the evening has been dedicated to women in both community’s affected by breast cancer.
Miners’ head football coach Kai Smalley proposed the benefit to his players earlier in the season and the team was ecstatic about the idea.
“It was really exciting explaining it to the kids, just to see how excited they got about it, and it was their idea to ask Wasatch to participate in it,” Smalley said.
A former assistant coach at Wasatch for the past two years, Smalley called up his old boss, Wasatch head coach Steve North, to see if he would be interested in participating.
North didn’t need to hear more than a few seconds of an explanation to give Smalley the green light.
In honor of breast cancer victims and survivors, players from both teams will don pink wrist bands and pink ankle and wrist tape. Coaches from both staffs will be wearing hats lined with pink and pink wrist bands.
The proceeds from the event will be donated to Image Reborn, a local nonprofit organization, which was founded in 1999 and specializes in educational and therapeutic retreats for victims of breast cancer in Park City.
Karen Halverson sees this as an opportunity for communities to align and come together on such an important and emotional subject.
A former radiation oncologist for 18 years and a parent of a sophomore on the Park City football team, Halverson’s area of expertise was breast cancer. She is associated with the Park City Football Task Force and helped align the event with Image Reborn.
“All (women) would have to do is get to Park City and everything else would be taken care of,” Halverson said. “It’s a scheduled weekend designed with experts, therapists, education and emotional support.”
Smalley has a strong emotional interest in the matter.
Having lost a close friend of his a month ago to breast cancer, Smalley is also dealing with the diagnosis of his sister, Kellie, who was told she has colon cancer this summer.
“For Kai, one of the hardest things about leaving Oregon was leaving Kellie,” Halverson said. “I think he looks at it as one way of supporting her from a distance.”
Smalley had asked his team earlier this season to raise their hands if they’ve been affected by cancer.
“It’s one of those things where it’s a reality,” Smalley said. “We were sitting in a meeting trying to get our kids to understand why we’re doing this. We asked them to raise their hands if they’ve been affected by cancer. 90 percent of the room raised their hand.”
Before Thursday’s kickoff, each team captain from each team will escort a breast cancer survivor to midfield to participate in the pre-game coin toss.
Halverson mentioned that the target they’re looking to raise at the game is around $2,000 to $4,000. Shirts, hats and wrist bands will be available for sale at the game, with receptacles being located at each entrance for donations.
“I think that when (the players) see that, although they might not go on to solve the problem today, they can help be a part of the answer,” Smalley said. “It will help them feel like they have some ownership in it. They do have a stand against it.”
Kickoff is Thursday night at Dozier Field at 7 p.m.