Peach Belt Conference and Select Sport Partner for Breast Cancer Awareness

AUGUSTA, GA – The Peach Belt Conference and Select Sport America will support the Susan G. Komen ‘Kick for the Cure’ campaign by using exclusive pink soccer balls at six Peach Belt Conference games beginning Oct. 10. The balls were produced by Select Sport, an official partner of the conference, for exclusive use in these six games. The ‘Kick for the Cure’ campaign will raise funds for the Komen Foundation, dedicated to finding a cure for breast cancer.

“We are extremely grateful to Select Sport for providing us this unique opportunity,” said PBC commissioner David Brunk. “This is a wonderful program and we are excited to be able to use these balls to help raise both awareness and funds for breast cancer research. Community outreach is one of the foundations of the Peach Belt Conference and thanks to our coaches and student-athletes, we can contribute to a larger effort that will make a huge difference for a lot of people.”

Columbus State's Gina Goforth playing in CSU's Kick for the Cure game on Sept. 26 with the Select Sport pink ball.  CSU players wore special white uniforms with pink trim while USC Aiken wore pink uniforms with white trim.  Nearly $3,000 was raised for breast cancer research.

“We wanted to give our support for breast cancer research and treatment and coming up with this ball design is just one small way we can do that,” said Soren Hansen, president of Select Sport America. “Using the pink ribbon seemed like a natural place to start and the rest of the ball developed from there. We’re grateful so many PBC teams have chosen to use the ball and help us in this cause.”

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the pink Select Sport ball will be exclusively featured in six games beginning Oct. 10 with USC Aiken at Montevallo. Other games to use the special pink balls will be Georgia Southwestern at North Georgia and Flagler at Armstrong Atlantic State on Oct. 14, Lander at UNC Pembroke Oct. 17 and Clayton State at Lander on Oct. 31. The Francis Marion men’s team will also use the pink balls when they host USC Aiken on Oct. 21.

Select Sport America will provide pink Royale NCAA game balls for the six Peach Belt games. The Peach Belt Conference will be the only conference in the nation to be using the balls. Each ball is adorned with ‘The Cure’ just below the Select mark and sports the internationally-known pink ribbon on both sides. In addition to the game balls, each venue will be provided pink mini-balls to use as raffle prizes or for other fundraising efforts.

"We are excited for the upcoming ‘Kick for the Cure’ game against Flagler,” said Armstrong Atlantic State head coach Eric Faulconer. “All of our student-athletes, coaches and athletic department staff have known someone that has battled this terrible disease. Anytime you can keep the fight against cancer in the forefront is important. We hope that the AASU community and soccer fans of the Coastal Empire will come out and support the game and the cause."

"This disease has affected the families of a few former players. We initially set out to honor them and offer our support to them while also helping with the search for cure," said Francis Marion men's head coach Kevin Varnado. "We have been actively supporting this cause for the past four years and we hope to encourage others to get involved as well. Our players have been very supportive of this event and I think they enjoy taking part and have even developed a sense of pride."

Select Sport and the Peach Belt’s commitment to fighting breast cancer has already begun with a women’s game on Sept. 26. USC Aiken visited Columbus State as both teams used the pink ball. In addition, Columbus State purchased white jerseys with pink trim for the home team and pink jerseys with white trim for the visitors. Each jersey carried the Susan G. Komen Foundation pink ribbon. Each team held a fundraising effort and spectator donations were taken the day of the game leading to a total contribution of nearly $3,000.

Komen for the Cure is the world’s largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists fighting to save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all and energize science to find the cures. The foundation has invested more than $1.3 billion to fulfill our promise, becoming the largest source of nonprofit funds dedicated to the fight against breast cancer in the world.