Currently Browsing: Sports
The Mayor’s Challenge
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Ryan Bleecher
West Boca Girls Varsity Basketball Team wins the Mayor's Challenge
Written by Ryan Bleecher, Sports Writer
This past weekend Varsity Girls basketball Coach Patrick Faber introduced an annual Girls Basketball tournament, “The Mayors Challenge”. This tournament is different than most high school basketball tourneys. The Mayors Challenge benefits the South Florida Affiliate of the Susan G Komen Foundation for the cure for breast cancer. All four local Boca Ration public schools: Boca Raton High, Olympic Heights, Spanish River West Boca Raton High participated in the inaugural event.
Coach Faber came up with the idea last year, when he was having dinner after a game. “It took a lot of people’s help to make this [tournament] possible” Faber said. All teams wore pink warm up shirts and pink ribbons on their jerseys. Pink balloons and decorations covered the gym on Friday and Saturday night. As a result, the atmosphere in the West Boca High gym was different from other high school basketball games.
Furthermore, there was a free throw competition to top off the festivities. The competition included, Mayor Susan Whelchel, Principal Mark Stenner, School board member Frank Barbieri, FAU coach Howard Schnellenberger, and Florida Sentors, Ted Deutch, and Jeff Atwater.
In the championship game, West Boca took on rival, Boca High. After a close and hard fought game, Jessica Perrin’s basket with 3.2 seconds left in the game put the Bulls ahead. West Boca was able to hold on and win the game 62-61.
Joel Namer, a speaker for the Susan G Komen foundation, attended the event. He explained what the Susan G Komen Foundation was all about. Susan had breast cancer and right before she died, she told her sister to make a charity to help fight breast cancer. Koman sadly died of breast cancer at age 36, and the foundation took soon after in 1978. When Joel Namer first heard about the foundation, he wanted to join. Namer is a breast cancer survivor himself and has been free of it for 13 years. He said it was the hardest thing he ever went through. Because breast cancer is a scary and life-threatening disease, this tournament was a great way to spread awareness to all in the area.
Email This Post
Print This Post
Leave a Reply