ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - The women's basketball team awoke early on Sunday morning to volunteer for a cause near and dear to their hearts, the 2011 Komen Central Florida Race for the Cure, on UCF's campus.
The Knights led the children's tent, keeping them entertained with games like bean bag toss and golf putting. They also interacted through arts and crafts and foot races.
Associate Head Coach Greg Brown ran the 5K, which "since its inception in 1983, has grown from one local race with 800 participants to a global series of more than 140 races with more than 1.6 million people expected to participate in 2011 in four continents," according to www.komencentralflorida.org.
The team viewed it as a way to do their part in helping bring awareness to a disease that has affected the Knight family. Assistant coach Bob Starkey's wife, Sherie, is a breast cancer survivor and was in attendance at the event.
"For the UCF women's basketball family to accept my wife and I on that personal level this quickly, it just speaks volumes," Starkey said.
Starkey also spoke of the cause's impact on a national level.
"I think the thing that has really pushed breast cancer awareness to the forefront in the sport of women's college basketball was the fight of Kay Yow. I think because she was such a special person and to watch how hard she battled three times against breast cancer has made it very important. ... I think it's very important not just for the funds that are being raised, but for awareness. My wife is still around today because of early detection. When my wife and I go around and speak, that is the one thing that we really promote: early detection. You just can't start too soon."
