The John Stark and Bow girls’ soccer teams raced up and down the field on Sept. 30, battling for positioning, contesting corners and firing shots at the net. Facing a team that was 8-1-0 at the time, the then 5-3-0 Generals saw the game as a test: of their skill, of their resolve.
Bow won, 2-0, extending its win streak to four games. John Stark showed it could compete with one of D-II’s best teams.
But about an hour before taking the field against each other at Bow High School, the competitive fire was cooled down. The student-athletes came together to help fight against a common enemy: cancer.
For the first time, Bow coach Jay Vogt organized a fundraiser through Red Card Cancer. The organization started in 2009 at Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania and has since grown, working closely with Johns Hopkins’ Sidney Kimmel Cancer Research Center since 2010 and starting a partnership with the American Cancer Society in 2018.
“By engaging and working with all levels of the soccer community, Red Card Cancer seeks to become a vehicle for how the soccer community can fight cancer together,” the organization’s website says.
A few months earlier, Vogt had received an email from one of RCC’s regional directors about the Falcons holding their own fundraiser. It felt like the right thing to do, he thought. Like so many people, Vogt had seen firsthand the impact cancer can have on family – his 28-year-old son Taylor is six months recovered from two years of treatment for T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma.
The opportunity for such an event also held great meaning to Bow’s JV girls’ soccer coach, Jess Allison, who played for Vogt when she was in high school. In 2019, she was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer.
“When I was going through treatment, he was incredibly supportive of me,” Allison said of Vogt. “The parents, the athletes, the families – I’m also a teacher in Bow and so my administrators, my colleagues – they all supported me in incredible ways through my treatment and my journey. To be able to partner with them again to give back to other people was really amazing.”
Vogt knew he wanted to organize the inaugural fundraiser around his team’s homecoming game against John Stark. He’s coached some of the Generals in club soccer, and, he said, he knew there’d be a great crowd for the game.
Generals head coach Chris Pike said Vogt reached out about a month earlier to see if his team would be interested in participating. It was a no-brainer.
“We go there to play a good game of soccer, but there’s respect between the two teams,” he said. “Despite the fact that we’re in the middle of a season and both teams are trying really hard to get the wins and things, we can set that aside and show that we can come together towards a common cause. It’s not all about soccer, it’s about life as well, and I think that’s the big thing here: The girls realize, yes, soccer’s fun and important in their lives, but there are bigger pictures out there. And they’ll set aside anything to try and help out whenever they can.”
Before the game began, John Stark presented a $500 donation check from money the players had raised themselves. Red Card Cancer set a goal of $750 for overall donations. Bow and John Stark wound up raising $1,240.
“It made me feel good that people were willing to contribute money,” Vogt said. “It shows that as much as sometimes people don’t want to think, there are good people out there and want to help. That’s a good thing to see.”
The plan moving forward is to make this an annual event when Bow and John Stark play each other. For Allison, she sees this collaboration is a prime example of how the opportunities for student-athletes extend beyond just the on-field experiences.
“Their impact is bigger than sports. What they do and the platform that they hold can allow them to do great things,” she said. “They were able to partner with a local school, and yes, we played a game against one another – yes, there’s competition – but really overall, they came together to do something positive.
“It doesn’t matter what the name says on the front of your jersey, it doesn’t matter what school you go to, what sport you play. If you’re contributing positively to the community, that’s what really matters.”