The crowd comes alive as the players step onto the court. Tonight is about the community. Tonight is about Tatum. Coaches vs. Cancer has just begun.

Coaches vs. Cancer night will be Friday, Jan. 20. The night is held annually to benefit the family of a local cancer patient.  All money raised from the event will go to benefit Tatum Schulte, daughter of boys basketball coach Travis Schulte. The event is intended to involve the community and spark the flame for #TeamTatum once more.

“Coach Lombard is really good about being aware of what’s going on in the community and within our area,” high school secretary Jennifer Douglass said. “He’s really good about speaking up and getting everybody rallied around it.”

Douglass said coaches all around the area band together to gain support for this year’s program. Over the course of six games, donations will be collected on both the home and visitor sides by members of the JV team.

“Coach Lombard has taken older basketballs and cut them in half so they’re hollowed out bowls, and he has different players going around during every game that night,” Douglass said. “The cool part is that the coaches actually wear their dress pants and their sweaters or dress shirt, and then they wear tennis shoes. That’s kind of the visual for the coaches’ participation because otherwise, the coaches are so involved in their game they can’t really participate in all of what’s going on around them.”

Douglass said in addition to the fundraising during the games, a bake sale will offer the community a way to help by donating and purchasing baked goods.

“The community always likes to help with things like this,” Douglass said. “The bake sale will start around 5 that night, and we take donated goods. The community can bring baked goods here any day this week into the front office, or they can drop it off at the bake sale table Friday night.”

Douglass said all bake sale donations are appreciated and will be sold Friday.

“The goodies that sell the best are the ones that are aesthetically pleasing,” Douglass said. “The homemade pies, the pretty cakes, the desserts with pretty boxes, or bows. But cookies and other small treats sell well also. Anything the community can contribute would really help.”

Douglass said the bake sale will go until the baked goods are all sold, or until the last game ends.

“It’s just something simple a lot of people could participate in,” Douglass said. “The community wants to help, but you don’t always know how or what you can do that would truly make an impact.”

The community has always been supportive of Coaches vs. Cancer and similar events. Douglass said in the past, the events have been electric and she hopes this year will be the same.

“The money won’t even touch what their medical bills are going to be, but it’s a message more than anything of how much the community loves them and wants to help them,” Douglass said. “In the bigger scheme of life it isn’t much, but it’s what we can do and what we want to do. It’s just representative of the heart of people around here.”