WILLIAMSTOWN — During the 80 minutes they’re on the pitch, there may be no fiercer rivals in the Schuylkill League than Williams Valley and Tri-Valley.
But once a year, that rivalry means a lot more than securing two points in the Division II standings.
Last Thursday, Williams Valley hosted its first Red Card Cancer game of the season at Viking Stadium against the neighboring Bulldogs.
As usual, the two sides engaged in a physical battle, ending in a 4-3, overtime victory for the Vikings. Following the full-time whistle, however, players from both sides got together to salute their efforts off the pitch in a fight against the toughest opponent of all.
“(The game) was heated, back and forth,” Williams Valley coach Seth Shuey said. “But as soon as the whistle blew, everyone was laughing and having a good time.”
That’s because they know what they’ve accomplished already. Proceeds from the game — one of three Williams Valley will host this season — are split between two cancer research and support organizations: the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Research Center and Miles 4 Michael, which supports families in Tower City and the surrounding area that have a family member with a life-threatening condition.
Since 2009, the Vikings and a variety of opponents have raised about $10,000. But their work isn’t done yet.
Williams Valley’s final two Red Card Cancer games of the season will be played this week — today against Pottsville and Saturday against Pine Grove.
Depending on the schedule, Upper Dauphin and Halifax also participate in the Vikings’ fundraiser. But there’s always one constant: Tri-Valley.
“It was nice because it brought two teams together that otherwise probably would’ve just left the field, went home and forgotten about each other,” Tri-Valley first-year coach Ian Blyth said.
After spending a couple years coaching Tamaqua, Blyth was introduced to his first Valley Derby last Thursday. He said continuing Tri-Valley’s participation in Red Card Cancer was “a no-brainer.”
“I told the kids that even though they’re young and they don’t really understand cancer and the effects is has on people, one day in their lives you will absolutely, no doubt lose somebody from cancer,” said Blyth, who lost his step-mother to the disease a few years ago.
“The kids took it seriously. The game was pretty intense, so for us to come off the back of that game and take pictures and take it a little more seriously than just a game, it was pretty neat.”
Red Card Cancer was started by Bloomsburg University men’s soccer coach Paul Payne in 2009 as a tribute to his long-time friend and mentor Joe Bochicchio, the former women’s head coach at Scranton University who passed away after losing a battle with melanoma.
That year, 17 programs (16 college teams and one high school team) participated in the effort on Oct. 3. Since, the Kimmel Cancer Research Center and Major League Soccer’s D.C. United have joined the fight to bring more attention to Red Card Cancer.
But it’s schools like Williams Valley that put so much heart into the cause. Shuey said he gets a lot of help from the team’s boosters and from Angelo’s Soccer Corner in Harrisburg, which provides the shirts the teams wear during the games.
Shirts are also on sale at all three games. Donations to Red Card Cancer also come in the form of flat donations raised by players of both teams. Occasionally, players will fill out pledge sheets, which feature donations for certain accomplishments during the game ($20 per goal, for example).
There is also a raffle during the games that Shuey said is very successful.
“Eventually, it’s something I’m hoping the entire Schuylkill League will do,” Shuey said.
Blyth and Tri-Valley certainly don’t need to be sold on participating in Red Card Cancer. Though it was only Blyth’s first experience with the event, the extent of work Shuey and the Vikings do to coordinate the fundraiser isn’t lost on him.
“Between work that we have to do during the day and having to go to practice, I don’t know where (Shuey) finds time to organize a charitable event involving multiple schools,” Blyth said. “It’s a pretty hard thing to figure out logistic-wise. I think it’s pretty admirable for him to have time to throw that into the mix.”