Breast cancer awareness volleyball game
Every year in the month of October the lady lions have an annual pink out volleyball game that is typically held on the first Saturday of the month. This year, the intense volleyball match involving fort smith and A&M commerce fell on October 12th, this big event happens to mean alot to not only the volleyball team but also to the head coach Jane Sargent. The university of arkansas fort smith head coach is aiming towards her 700th career win since she began coaching the program in 1998, Jane is not only an important factor to the university as a whole but she has also been the only head coach for the for the university since 1998 when they started up the program as a junior college named West-ark university. Over the past month I chad the chance to sit down one on one with Jane and ask her a few questions about her life during and after she was diagnosed with breast cancer and I’ve not only gained a lot of new information about the UAFS head coach but I also had found a new level of respect for this strong survivor. Jane was diagnosed with breast cancer in November of 2016, she said “I knew that I probably had something going into the appointment because I googled it and had some symptoms so my case was self discovery, and my mom had breast cancer when I was growing up so I also knew it ran in the family.” knowing she had breast cancer didn’t stop her from being a fighter, she said “I never ever thought that is was going to beat me, but I was a little concerned about losing my hair, That was probably the worst part of it all when they told me I would lose all of my hair from having to go through chemotherapy. The only thought I really had was that it might be a nice weight loss program for me to keep it lighthearted, but this definitely won’t be something that beats me.” I followed up with asking Jane “how did breast cancer take a toll on your everyday life?” she continued with “during the time that I had breast cancer it honestly just felt like I had the flu and some days were worse than others and at one period of time it got to where I couldn’t even stand up to brush my teeth so that was very hard for me to do everyday life things. I’m a very active person and love to be adventurous so it was very difficult for me while I had cancer because I just wanted to do everything I used to be able to do but I was unable to.” Jane also said “ it was one of the most toxic experiences of my life, I had to be strapped to a chair for chemo every other week and I couldn’t taste or smell anything at all. It was a very hard time but again, it didn’t ever beat me.”
The breast cancer awareness game has been an annual event since this program has begun but in recent years the importance has not only stuck with this specific event but has also grown tremendously due to the fact that Jane has gone through the trouble of having breast cancer. Having any kind of cancer must be very hard to balance with life and trying to still be active and social with others. It must take a lot of support from others around you in order to make the process a little easier. I asked Jane and she explained that “ my family was a huge part and also my friends came to the surgery and chemo which helped me a lot. My assistant coach was phenomenal with helping me through the hard time by stepping in and being a form of head coach during the offseason which took a lot of pressure off of me and they let me take off teaching for the whole year so the school in general also really helped me when I was going through everything because it wouldn’t have been easy at all trying to balance everything at once. It’s a great place to be and a great place to work if something bad ever happens to you. I knew they had my back through everything” through this hard time and trying to balance everything there were multiple challenges sargent had to face, she had to use something as a motivational “push” to keep going strong. Jane said she got a gift from one of her players and it was a small painting of a lion and it said “the devil whispered in my ear you’re not strong enough to withstand the storm and today, I whispered in the devil’s ear I am the storm” I found this to be a strong sense of motivation for me and it was sweet coming from a player” sargent claims that as she can now tell people she overcame cancer, she uses it to say it’s one of her superpowers. “I am a warrior, this experience has truly humbled me and made me appreciate life more.”
I have the pleasure and luxury of being on the fort smith volleyball team so I personally was there to take on not only the full experience but the significance of this specific match and the true meaning of raising awareness for this cause. Breast cancer is a disease where the cells located in the breasts being either one breast or both grow out of control and cause a malignant tumor to occur from the overgrowth of cells located in a specific area. Like previously stated the overgrowth of cells can occur in different parts of the breast; such as in the lobules; which are the glands that produce milk, the ducts which are tubes that carry the breast milk to the nipple, and the connective tissue which consists of fibrous and fatty tissue that surrounds the breast and holds everything together. Most breast cancers begin in the ducts or lobules. Breast cancer can also be known to spread outside the breast through blood vessels and lymph vessels, if this specific spreading occurs it is known to be called metastasized.
Some common symptoms that naturally occur in the breast tissue that seem to stand out to women who are infected are lumps in the tissue that tend to be easily noticeable to the touch, discomfort in the infected area, inverted nipples, and or nipple discharge. Also common is redness or swollen lymph nodes around the general area. According to statistics, 12.4% of women in the United States will develop breast cancer in the course of their lifetime, which proves that breast cancer is the most common cancer among women, aside from skin cancer.
At the end of the interview I asked Jane what one memory was from the pink out game that she will remember for the rest of her life and she said “just the support, you know the support from the first year we had it all the coaches and admin from the school got together and made a video for me and that was pretty special, it brought tears to my eyes. The coaches around the heartland conference planned every pink out game to when fort smith was in town playing the opposing team and I know they did that for me just to support me, the support from my team especially. I received a ball signed with everyones name and a word they chose to describe me as a person. It all means a lot to me and I will remember it for the rest of my life for sure. I just want to make sure im setting a good strong example for you guys and I want y'all to know that if something bad ever happens, which it will because every ⅛ of women get breast cancer, that you are strong enough to get through it.” one word Sargent chose to describe the pink out game was support because she felt a tremendous amount of love and the feeling of everyone having her back no matter what.
I also had the pleasure of asking our Athletic directors a few questions about the pink out match and if or how it could relate to their life on a personal level. I went to Curtis Janz, the head athletic director at the University of Arkansas-Fort smith and asked him if the pink out game had any meaning to him and he said “ when I was in the third grade, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had surgery and chemo. It was a very frightening time for me and my family and that was the first time i've ever seen my father cry. As a kid I saw how hard it was on my mother to go through all the treatment and how it impacted my family. The pink out game is significant to me because of how many people are impacted by cancer daily. We need to be reminded of how hard it actually is to live dealing with cancer. Also, the families that have to deal with the loss of a loved one from cancer. My mother beat cancer and was a 40 year survivor, she passed three years ago and I miss her strength and resilience every single day.” Katie Beinike which is the assistant athletic director for UAFS answered the previous question with “ Breast cancer is near and dear to my heart because I carry the BRCA 1 mutation which means i have extremely high risk of developing either breast cancer and ovarian cancer. Since my mother passed from ovarian cancer, I decided to get tested for the gene. Just last year I underwent a prophylactic double mastectomy to reduce my risk of breast cancer to less than one percent. Needless to say breast cancer is something i'm extremely passionate about. I believe it is crucial for women and men to know that knowledge is power and that the more we know the more we can save lives until we finally find a cure for this awful disease.” it is extremely eye opening knowing that almost everyone you are familiar with has been affected by breast cancer in some form whether it be a friend or a loved one. Everyday there are people battling this horrific disease and it is a very common thing amongst all women, everyone should get scanned at least once or twice in their lifetime to be sure that their body is healthy because after all 1 in every 8 women get this in a lifetime before they die.
I followed up this conversation with the question asking while working with coach sargent and her being a breast cancer survivor , does it make you want to prepare for this specific game differently? Athletic Director Curtis Janz said “ it makes the day even more personal. Coach sargent is a living reminder of how fragile life is, but it also gives us an example of how strong coach is. It is inspiring to work alongside someone like coach sargent.” Assistant Athletic Director Katie Beinike said “ knowing coach sargent on a personal level and the ruthless fight against this disease makes us all want to do our best to make the event successful. All the donations are given to Komen Ozark as a part of a wonderful relationship we have with the organization and its members. Komen Ozark works endlessly to end breast cancer and we support their endeavors wholeheartedly.” these hard working athletic directors dressed out for the pink out game by wearing a pink tie and a pink bow on a UAFS athletics t-shirt.
Everyday someone is affected by breast cancer and it is essential to make sure that you have check ups to insure you don’t come out to be a part of the statistic to having breast cancer and being affected by this horrible disease.
I asked senior volleyball captain Anna Demmer what her thoughts are from the pink out game and she answered with “ it’s been really neat seeing her confidence change from the moment she told us in the locker room that she was diagnosed with cancer to the moment in our last pink out game, she has truly grown so much as a person from going through what she went through and she is truly an inspiration and will always be the first one to teach us more about strength and resilience. I admire her ability to keep pushing forward, no matter what life throws at her.”
Finally, the pink out game turned into a hard fought and challenging loss to the A&M Commerce team. The lady lions lost 21-25 in the first set, 28-30 in the second, 22-25 in the third, and lastly 26-28 in the fourth set to determine the game. The lady lions fought hard and gave it their all during this match but were unable to pull through in the last few points of the fourth set. This game means the absolute world to not only the volleyball team as a whole but to coach Sargent and the crowd as well. As previously stated above, this is an annual game that the lady lions hold on the first Saturday of the month in october and it is a game that is near and dear to everyone’s hearts. This is not just a typical volleyball game, there is so much more meaning behind it. After hearing about what the head coach and both athletic directors had to say from this match, I have gained a whole new world of information on about how this game has more value than any other match of the year. The lady lions fought extremely hard on this Saturday of October and their efforts will never go unnoticed. Coach sargent truly is a prime example of strength, resilience, and courage. It takes more than just one person to battle breast cancer, it takes a community and a whole lot of support to go through what Jane Sargent went through. The pink out game is a memorable match that will never be forgotten, thanks to everyone who supported and made the dream come to reality of making it the most successful game of the season.
