By: Mohammed Ramzanali
The Westborough High School girls’ freshman, junior varsity and varsity volleyball teams hosted their annual ‘Dig Pink’ game on October 18, 2016. This event has been running for the past six years at WHS, but its history has deeper roots.
“Dig Pink is an enormous nationwide movement in the volleyball community that focuses on raising support, awareness and money for breast cancer research. Almost every college and hundreds of high schools in the nation participate in this movement,” says head coach Roger Anderson.
Enacted in 2011, Coach Anderson, a huge proponent of this movement, announces the names of breast cancer survivors and women who are in remission to acknowledge their fight and to congratulate them on winning their battle. He also announces the names of women who have sadly lost their battle and gives them a moment of silence out of respect before the game begins.
On Tuesday night, with the stands full well before the match was even close to beginning, the varsity volleyball team ran out the way they usually do, but instead of jumping right into warm ups they stood on the baseline. Coach Anderson walked out and announced the names of the women who won their battle and they received rose and the warmest of welcomes from the players of both teams, the fans, and the parents who were in attendance.
“It’s fun to play volleyball but the night is so much bigger than us,” said junior Emma Smallcomb, “It makes us feel that we are apart of something bigger because we are raising money and awareness for the research of cancer and it’s nice to know we can contribute and make a difference to something so substantial. The team itself is overwhelmed because in a way we are playing for them and during the game we aren’t always thinking about the game it’s mostly about the night. Its rewarding to know that we are making a difference in people’s life.”
The game itself was an easy one for the Rangers as they took on Leominster. The game 56 minutes to be completed and the Blue Devils couldn’t keep up. The Rangers took the first game 25-13 with outstanding play from Smallcomb, sophomore Gabby Bailey and junior Mary Kate Lehman. In the second game the girls came out on top repeating with a 25-13 score. In the third game, Coach Anderson sat his starters and put the next rotation of girls who eventually went onto beat the Blue Devils 25-15 making it a three game sweep for the Rangers.
