BATON ROUGE — LSU and Alabama will be battling Saturday afternoon in Tuscaloosa in an SEC basketball contest, but the coaching staffs will join hundreds of coaches in all divisions around the country in a symbolic gesture to raise awareness for the national “Coaches vs. Cancer” campaign.
The two staffs will take part in the annual “Suits and Sneakers” weekend leaving dress shoes at home and wearing sneakers with their suits in a common effort to raise the level of cancer awareness in the country.
Coaches vs. Cancer? is a nationwide collaboration between the American Cancer Society and the National Association of Basketball Coaches that empowers basketball coaches, their teams, and communities to join the fight against cancer. The program leverages basketball coaches’ personal experiences, community leadership, and professional excellence to increase cancer awareness and raise funds to fight the disease through year-round educational efforts and fundraising activities. Since the program’s inception in 1993, more than 500 coaches have raised nearly $40 million to support the Society’s efforts to eliminate cancer as a major health problem.
Also this year in a show of support for the program, many of the game officials around the country will be blowing a specially made blue whistle and will donate a portion of their game fees this weekend to the Coaches vs. Cancer program.
More information about the program can be found at www.coachesvscancer.org.