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St. Clair Coaches Vs. Cancer Effort Becomes Personal

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By Stacy Steinhagen, Anchor - email

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Athletics are full of lessons for the game of life.
St. Clair Boys Head Basketball Coach Charlie Freitag says, "I told them just before we came out. Guys, I thought about basketball for about a half an hour today."


Those life lessons are easy to spot in a recent basketball game: the match up with St. Clair hosting Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial. Players outfitted with pink wristbands and shoelaces, St. Clair's Coach Freitag proudly wearing a pink shirt.


Coach Freitag says, "Basketball is such a small part of what we do."


This game doubles as a Coaches Vs. Cancer event. On this night, these rivals are on the same team in the fight against cancer.
 
St. Clair fan Grace Drummer says, "It's just kinda to spread the word about cancer."
 
Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial fan Cami Kottke says, "I think it's really good....and $20 per point, that's a lot of money."


Thanks to business support, every point on the scoreboard is worth $20. At half-time, fans give from their wallets. And the more than 2,100 die-cuts people purchased for a dollar each line the gym's wall at St. Clair, representing someone touched by cancer: someone lost, battling the disease, or a survivor.


"Awareness is the number one thing with Coaches Vs. Cancer and the money and donations are second," says Coach Freitag.
For the St. Clair team, cancer hits close to home.
 
Freitag says, "It's affected us both on and off the court, but every day we try to talk about it."


Two weeks before the start of the season Number 33 Neal Lang was diagnosed with cancer.


Grace Drummer says, "He's always thought about, all day long."


"Every day we try to remember that he's at home or at Rochester getting chemo therapy and we have the privilege really to still be here," Freitag says.


The team's center is missing from the lineup, but he's in the team photo. His picture taken in Rochester and photo shopped so he joins his teammates. More important than the final score, the game sends a strong message. When it comes to cancer, losing is not an option.

The final score of Thursday's game in St. Clair: 73 to 61, Lake Crystal wins.
More importantly that night's Coaches Vs. Cancer event raised more than $5,000 for the American Cancer Society.