The Student News Site of Malvern Preparatory School

Friar's Lantern

The Student News Site of Malvern Preparatory School

Friar's Lantern

The Student News Site of Malvern Preparatory School

Friar's Lantern

Gridiron Game of Honor raises breast cancer awareness on campus

Usually it’s the mothers of athletes who come out to support their sons during the big games. However, it’s the mothers who will be taking the field this October.

gridiron-game

Malvern mother Mrs. Annette MacLachlan organized a football game for the women of the Malvern community to honor those who have fought – both winning and losing battles – against breast cancer.

Mrs. MacLachlan decided to get involved with the game because she “thought it would be fun for the football team to watch school mom’s play and what better way to celebrate those who have battled cancer than to have a much lighter type of ‘battle.’”

At an all boy’s school, Director of Development Victor D’Ascenzo ’81 says it is often easy to lose sight of how integral the mothers, female teachers and staff members, and all the women of Malvern are to our school community.

“Something I think is hard to forget is more than half of our community is women,” D’Ascenzo said. “Moms, faculty, spouses of male faculty. So our community is, if not predominantly, heavily weighed towards women. This game is a long overdue recognition of their service to us.”

The event will take place Wednesday, October 26 at 6 PM on Quigley field. There will be a concession stand set up to benefit an organization known as Cuddle my Kids.  

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“There is some physicality but in my times watching one of these games it’s all in good fun. No one gets roughed up too bad.”

-Coach Aaron Brady[/perfectpullquote]

Cuddle my Kids also has a Malvern connection; Mrs. Colleen Bucci and her sister, both Malvern parents, are the ones who started the organization.  

D’Ascenzo said that the organization takes a unique and unprecedented approach to dealing with the horrible disease. According to their website, “The everyday struggle of battling cancer is physically and emotionally difficult, especially for families with young children. Cuddle My Kids supports families and children affected by cancer by offering creative enrichment and play, arts and crafts, age-appropriate educational resources and more – all while giving the sick parent some much-needed downtime.”

Although the game benefits this great organization, D’Ascenzo said he looks as the game as more of an “awareness raiser” than anything else.

“The important thing to remember is this: as we looked at the purpose of the game, we weren’t really looking at it as a fundraiser. We were looking at it as a unique opportunity to bring awareness to our broader Malvern community of Breast Cancer Awareness month.”

The game has already reached the community. Over fifty women have signed up and members of the Malvern football team have volunteered to be assistant coaches, referees, and chain gang.

Head football Aaron Brady was approached to run the practice before the big day. In his mind, rather than honing their skills, the women first needed to learn all the basic rules of the game.

“The first thing we are going to do is a football 101,” Brady said. “We’re going to bring them all into a room and just talk basic football. I know there are some moms that have been around the game for a while and know it itself and out but there are also some that know nothing about it.”

After the introductory event the competition starts as the group is split into two separate teams.

Mrs. MacLachlan said “There are 34 women on each team and many others who want to stand on the sidelines and cheer us on.  I’m sure it will bring a lot of laughter on both the field and in the stands.”

“The teams will meet in a room just like we do before the varsity games to go over some strategy with their individual coaches. We want to give them a real football game environment before they step out onto the field for practice.” Brady said.  

Even though the game is for a special cause, Brady realizes that once the lights come out, there’s no holding back the competitive nature of the players. He wants to run practice in a way that everyone will have fun and still be prepared to play their best.  

“I anticipate the moms being really competitive actually,” Brady said. “We will try and keep it light and fun at the practice but I’m sure they’ll be anxious to get the most out of it so we’ll help them do that.”

When asked about the safety of the event, Brady gave a reassuring chuckle.

“Even though its two hand touch, we always have moms on the ground,” Brady said. “We tell them to be under control and I’m sure they intend to be but everyone gets a little fired up. There is some physicality but in my times watching one of these games it’s all in good fun. No one gets roughed up too bad.”

Coach Brady has previous experience with this sort of event and expressed how meaningful and impactful each event is for the school body.

“When I was at Nease high school – where Tim Tebow went – we used to do something like this as well. Every spring we would do a fundraiser where the girls from Nease would play the girls from another local high school and all the proceeds went to charity,” Brady said.

“At Gonzaga, the last high school I was at, we had a mom’s powderpuff game every spring and it was tons of fun. It really brought together the school community in a way that no varsity football game could.”

As for the future of the event, Mrs. MacLachlan is optimistic.

“My son Alex is a junior so I plan on organizing it again next year.  It would make me very happy to see something like this continue on when we are alumni.”

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