Not only will there be three games, including one between county foes Callaway and LaGrange, but it’ll be a day to honor and help those who have been stricken with cancer.
All of the proceeds from the day, including gate receipts, funds from the concession stand and money raise from the sale of special T-shirts, will be given to the Troup County Relay for Life.
“We wanted to give something back to the community, and sort of show the girls as coaches our job is not only to coach the girls in sports, but more importantly how to be better people, and stewards of the community,” Callaway head coach Nick Drescher said. “This is one way we can do that.
“And also, unfortunately, we’ve had girls’ family members and friends stricken with cancer. Everyone has known someone. So we wanted to do something that can benefit a little bit of everyone.”
With that in mind, the decision was made to donate to the Troup County Relay for Life, which benefits local cancer victims.
“That touches a little bit of everything from breast cancer to brain cancer, to lung cancer, you name it,” Drescher said. “One hundred percent of those profits will go into the pot and we’ll write one check to donate to the relay for life.”
Also today, the Callaway players will be able to wear pink uniforms, something they didn’t find out about until this morning.
The Georgia High School Association allows teams to wear pink uniforms one week during the season.
LaGrange wore their pink uniforms Tuesday against Troup, and Troup donned the pink uniforms during Thursday’s game against Shaw.
The pink uniforms are designed to raise awareness for breast cancer.
At the LaGrange and Troup games, cancer survivors were recognized, and a few of them threw out the first pitches in the varsity and junior-varsity games.
LaGrange and Troup also both donated proceeds from the games to cancer charities.
Last year, LaGrange recognized relatives of the players who had survived breast cancer.
This year, members of the LaGrange High faculty who have survived breast cancer were recognized, including Ashley Harris, who threw out the first pitch.
Also, Mary Turnbough and Janice Westbrook were honored.
“Last year we recognized family members, and we decided we’d recognize everybody at our school (this year),” LaGrange head coach Jan Jones said. “It’s always a fun day.”
At Troup, the players not only wore pink jerseys, but they were given the go-ahead to put the name of someone they know who’d had cancer on the back of the jersey.
Troup head coach Blair Shimandle put the name of a former softball teammate at Georgia Tech who has survived cancer.
Also, anyone related to the Troup County school system who has survived cancer was invited to attend, and two women threw out the first pitches at the varsity and junior-varsity games.
In between the games, eight women were recognized, including Diane Guy, Tracy Jones, Carly Byrd, Lynn Smith, Melissa Mathews, Leah Arnold, Lori Cardell Hart, and Raquel Falcon from Shaw.
As for today’s games, Drescher wanted to involve a local team, and since Callaway was already playing Troup, he asked if LaGrange would be interested.
“We already had a varsity game scheduled with Troup, and I emailed Jan, and she was all for it,” Drescher said.
Due to another team pulling out, Drescher had to find a third team, and Starr’s Mill agreed to make the trip down.
“It’ll be some good softball play with those two schools coming,” Drescher said.
LaGrange brings a 13-8 record into the game, although it is 7-0 in Region 5-AAAA after beating Columbus 2-0 on Thursday.
“LaGrange is a heck of a ball club,” Drescher said. “That’ll be a tough one. They’re doing really good in their region, and they’ve got Emily (Anderson), who is a great pitcher.”
Starr’s Mill, meanwhile, brings a 12-3-1 record into the game, and Callaway is 11-9.
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