Noles, Canes band together in cancer fight

Sports is meaningless, they say. A bottom feeder on the totem pole of life, they say.

In the wake of tragedy, sports is irrelevant. Utter nonsense. A waste of time and energy when placed face to face with real problems.

Such is the rhetoric whenever our world is rocked by catastrophe.

It’s wrong.

World peace, the economic crisis, the war in Iraq — these are real issues that won’t be impacted at all by what happens inside football stadiums or on baseball diamonds. I will give you that. And losing on a Sunday hurts, but it’s nowhere near as wrenching as losing a loved one on any day of the week. Agreed, right?

OK. But sports are integral. They play a role. They are an essential ingredient. They heal. And anyone who doubts this wasn’t anywhere near Southeast High’s gymnasium Tuesday night, when Manatee’s and Southeast’s volleyball teams banded together to battle a stubborn foe that really needs to go the way of the pet rock.

Breast cancer.

And when the Hurricanes and Seminoles took to the court Tuesday night during the Volley for the Cure ‘08, that was the opponent they had in mind. Even the pink program read Noles & Canes vs. Breast Cancer.

Both teams wanted to beat each other, sure. Southeast’s steady improvement and Manatee’s recent string of regional tournament appearances have turned this into quite a rivalry, one that was infused with a little extra juice Tuesday when both teams were playing for the second seed in the upcoming Class 5A-District 12 tournament.

But this about the pink t-shirts, pink volleyballs and pink dye jobs. All the proceeds went to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. And all the hearts Tuesday were in the right place.

Perhaps I am a tad biased — my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004. She underwent surgery a few months later and today, is alive and well, living on Long Island and calling me every chance she gets, wanting to know if I need money and making sure I ate that day. I want a cure for her, as well as the 182,460 American women expected to be diagnosed with the disease this year, according to the American Cancer Society.

So when I walked into the gym Tuesday and saw two sets stands filled with people dressed in pink t-shirts, and saw the pink volleyballs, and saw that the two schools ditched their tradition-rich colors for pink, I got a jolt of adrenaline.

This is sports! This what is sports does! They bring opponents together — and most importantly, they get people in the building. And people bring money.

Southeast coach Carmine Garofalo knew a Southeast-Manatee game would put bodies in the bleachers.

So what better night than this?

What better night to offer an information table, or have cancer survivors and their loved ones tell their real-life tales?

Who knows?

Perhaps one of the kids in attendance Tuesday was so touched by what he or she heard, they decided to get involved.

Maybe they will donate money. Or time. Or maybe they will become one of the medical prodigies working ‘round the clock in an attempt to find a cure.

Such is the power athletes. Athletes are special people, rare breeds who relish challenges instead of running from them.

The looks on the girls faces that night led you to believe they were taking a bite out of cancer with each spike, each volley and each assist.

Maybe they were.