Rivals come together again to aid cancer benefit

Carmen Johnson gets it.
So does Blue Springs South High School assistant volleyball coach Amy Benne.
They took members of the South volleyball team, along with players from Blue Springs High School, to Union Station Sunday morning to cheer on runners in the annual Susan G. Komen Run for the Cure, a 5K race that highlights cancer awareness.
Johnson, the Jaguars head volleyball coach, teamed with former Blue Springs volleyball coach Evan Manuel last year as the two rival teams wore pink cancer awareness T-shirts and played in the first Dig for the Cure event.
Pink T-shirts were sold at the match at Blue Springs High School, with all money going to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
“Volleyball is so competitive, especially between the two schools in Blue Springs,” Johnson said, “but when two teams get together to support something like a cancer run, it helps them see the big picture.
“There is so much more to life than volleyball. If you know four people, you probably know someone who has been affected by breast cancer. It’s still a scary situation, but with early detection there is a 95 percent success rate – and that’s up from 75 percent just a few years ago.”
When Tammy Butterfield, Director of Community Outreach of the Greater Kansas City Affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Foundation, spoke to young girls at the Blue Springs Freshman Center, her words made an impact.
“We wanted to do something to help, besides hosting the Dig for the Cure event this year,” Johnson said. “So we talked to the girls and told them about the run.
“I told them we could participate, or we could serve as cure-leaders.”
The girls chose to be cure-leaders, so they donned bright green T-shirts that read “I am the cure,” and shouted out support to the runners.
“They had a blast,” Johnson said. “They’d call out, ‘Early detection is the best prevention,’ or ‘I am the cure.’ The runners really seemed to appreciate the girls.”
When the race was over, the Jaguars and Wildcats who attended mingled with the runners and passed out special key chains.
“Amy deserves a lot of credit for our involvement,” Johnson said. “She came here from Blue Springs and worked with Evan last year and we all worked to get the Dig for the Cure event going.
“And I think it tells you something about the girls on both teams, because we met at 5:30 a.m. and got to Union Station about 6:30 a.m. before the start of the race. And we’re going to do it again next year.
“The girls were all so excited that I think they would be willing to do it again next weekend if I asked them.”
In a short period of time, Johnson has made her mark on the court and in the community. She demands a lot from her players, and she knows that developing good citizens is much more important than developing world class volleyball players.
“I have a very close aunt and cousin who have breast cancer, so this really hits home with me,” Johnson said. “And we had a parent of a player who was battling the disease.
“If somehow, you can impress on a high school student that there is so much more to life than the final score of a volleyball game, you’re really doing something special.”
Please go to  http://www.digitalsports.com/team/id/804783.aspx for donation/sponsorship and silent auction information for the Dig for the Cure event this year at Blue Springs South High School. There is also a form that allows you to pre-order T-shirts.