This past weekend, Queen’s Women’s Basketball hosted their annual U Sports Shoot for the Cure game against the Brock Badgers.
Shoot for the Cure is an initiative with roots dating back to the fall of 2007, founded by Rod Gilpin, former head coach of both the Men’s and Women’s Bishop’s Gaiters Basketball programs.
Partnering with the U SPORTS Women’s Basketball Coaches Association since its inception, it’s raised over $1.97 million in donations for the Canadian Cancer Society and other local and provincial charities for the fight against breast cancer.
This year, the campaign is running from Jan. 22 to Feb. 2, with Queen’s taking part in their game against the Brock Badgers on Jan. 26, this past weekend.
About one in every eight women in Canada are diagnosed with breast cancer, ing for 25 per cent of all new cancer cases in women. The cause fights an issue that has faced many of the program and the broader Kingston community. An impact Head Coach of Queen’s Women’s Basketball Claire Meadows emphasized in an interview with The Journal.
“As obviously a women’s sports team, there’s going to be many people within our program who are either going to be impacted directly or indirectly. So, it’s important that we use our platform to raise awareness and ,” Meadows said.
At Queen’s, the initiative is program-led, with players doing the work needed to engage the community to raise funds. So far, the team has raised around $70,000 in donations, with roughly $3,300 being raised this year.
“Our players interact with the crowd and sell raffle tickets, […] it’s a great way for our players to engage with the crowd and interact with the community. And the community stepped up big time,” Meadows said.
The team treated a crowd of 240 to an exciting comeback in return, finding themselves down 10 points going into the fourth quarter. The same scenario as their game the night before against the Toronto Metropolitan University Bold.
In their game against the Bold, the team rallied to get within two points but would fall just short. However, against Brock, they would push through to beat the Badgers by four, 63-59.
“To turn around and be able to do that again on a second night was quite impressive. And I just spoke to our team’s ability to grow and learn every single day, and I thought that we took learnings from Friday night, and we’re able to apply them to Saturday’s game,” Meadows said.
Their ability to adapt and continuously improve has been the key to success for a program that has seen several key players leaving for graduation.
“We knew that year was going to look and feel a lot different than particularly the last three years,” Meadows said.
“We’re such a younger group of players, it’s how do we get better today? […] Each opportunity has allowed us to grow significantly throughout the year, and it’s been, it’s been quite impressive to watch,” Meadows added.
With an impressive comeback on the heels of a tough loss, hard work put in by players on and off the court, and a ive home crowd. The game served as the perfect symbol for the season the Women’s Basketball team is having.
“We love playing in front of the Queen’s and Kingston community, and we always feel like it’s almost a sixth player behind us. We have one of the best crowds in the country,” Meadows emphasized.
You can watch the Queen’s Women’s Basketball travel away to Ottawa to take on the Ottawa Gee-Gees and Carleton Ravens on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 at OUA.tv.
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