Four high school boys’ teams and two National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college men’s lacrosse teams came together in Houston March 13 for The Kinkaid School’s inaugural “Beating Cancer With a Stick” Lacrosse Classic to raise money for the MD Anderson Children’s Cancer Hospital.
About 2,000 spectators turned out to watch the marquee match-up between the University of Notre Dame and Fairfield University, the grand finale to the preceding games between the four high school teams.
The $10,000 raised will benefit the Children’s Cancer Hospital’s Pediatric Clinical Research Program.
"Our community here at Kinkaid has been affected in a big way by cancer, and particularly right here in our coaching office,” says Jeremy Platt, Kinkaid’s head boys’ lacrosse coach. “Our eight-grade coach, Kelly Bolin, was treated for throat cancer at MD Anderson two years ago, and Amy Zimmerman, the wife of another of our lacrosse coaches, is being treated there now for Hodgkin’s lymphoma. So when I started thinking of organizations that this event could benefit, there’s certainly no better place than MD Anderson.”
During halftime, Bolin and Zimmerman presented a $10,000 check to the Children’s Cancer Hospital.
“I have such great respect for the people at MD Anderson. They saved my life,” says Bolin.
Platt says he plans on making the Lacrosse Classic an annual event to help grow the sport in Texas and to continue supporting MD Anderson. The Notre Dame–Fairfield game marked the first NCAA Division I lacrosse game to take place in Houston in 40 years. Teams from The Kinkaid School and Episcopal High School in Houston, Gulliver Preparatory in Miami and Palo Verde High School in Las Vegas also participated.
