Pink Power Takes the Stage
Breast Cancer Awareness reaches fishing fans
The reds and golds of autumn have been superseded by pink these days as anglers participating in FLW events have been showing their support for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which runs through October.
Pink is definitely the most popular color on the campus of Dallas Baptist University. To remind people that it’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month, some of the school’s teams wear pink warm-up jackets or jerseys. Among them are the women’s volleyball team and soccer squad.
DBU fishing team members Zackery Hines and Reed Foster joined the pink parade this month when they wore the appropriate colors en route to winning the FLW College Fishing Southern Conference Championship on Grand Lake. The DBU fishing club has 12 members, and half of them qualified to fish in the tournament. All three teams wore pink jerseys in the event.
Connor Smith, the school’s athletic director and fishing club adviser, is the biggest booster of the “Think Pink” movement on campus.
“It’s been kind of a collective idea and effort for our teams and clubs to wear pink on their jerseys during October,” says Smith. “And we do have a couple of neat initiatives here, such as the Big Pink Volleyball Tournament.
“We wanted to honor those who have gone through cancer and remind everybody where our thoughts and prayers are,” he continues. “Most of us have had family members or friends who have gone through the ordeal of breast cancer. My wife’s two aunts just went through it, and so did our volleyball coach’s mom. We need to keep it front and center in everyone’s mind to emphasize the importance of finding a cure.”
Smith says DBU has fielded fishing teams since 2012. The Patriots compete in 10 to 15 tournaments a year, and 2015 was an especially successful season.
“We used part of our winnings to buy the pink jerseys,” he says. “It’s the first year for those guys, though as an institution we’ve been in ‘think pink’ mode for quite a while.”
Todd Kline also served as a walking reminder of Breast Cancer Awareness Month in California a couple weeks ago when he fished the Rayovac FLW Series Western Division tournament on Clear Lake. Kline, a two-time Co-angler of the Year, is a dedicated advocate of such causes and never misses a chance to help spread the word.
“For me, there are certain times and places where you can deliver an important message, and even if it’s heard by one person it can make a positive difference,” he says. “One in eight women contract breast cancer, and if it’s caught in time it can be cured. We need to keep reminding everyone of that in whatever way we can.”