Athlete of the Week October 16 - Southeast High Volleyball Team

BRADENTON - An amazing thing happened the other night at Southeast High School. The Seminoles volleyball team came up with a plan to do something altruistic, and they recruited their most ardent rivals to accomplish it. That is why this week, we are honoring the Southeast volleyball team as our collective ABC 7 Athletes of the Week.

It is estimated that 182,460 women will be diagnosed with and 40,480 women will die of cancer of the breast in 2008. Early detection is the best weapon, so the Southeast volleyball team came up with a plan.  "A lot of us are touched by the disease and we thought this 'Volley for the Cure' would be a great way to bring awareness and raise money," says Seminole volleyball coach Carmine Garofalo.

This 'Volley for the Cure' has been in production for a few months, and Wednesday night was the culmination of all the hard work.  "It was great, since summer we have been working on this and to finally see it all come together so successfully was awesome," says Amanda Garofalo.

Part of the plan was to have everything pink, a calling card for breast cancer awareness.  There were door prizes and several speeches from breast cancer survivors.  It was a very emotional evening to say the least.  "When they were giving speeches I had tears in my eyes, it was just amazing. Breast cancer affects us all and it was great to be able to combine it with volleyball," says Hannah Bartges.

The two teams combined to sell over 900 t-shirts, and raise over $2,500 dollars for the Susan G. Komen foundation. Coach Garofalo thought it was a fine display by the youth of Bradenton.  "In this country we are lucky. For young people to come together like this is really a good indication of our future."

The fact that the teams from two schools who are bitter rivals on every level was even more gratifying.  "I thought it was really cool. It was nice to be united for breast cancer."

"Southeast and Manatee are rivals in everything, and it was great to come together," says Amanda.

With an assist from the Hurricanes, the Southeast volleyball team is our collective Athlete of the Week for raising awareness for breast cancer. Congratulations!