Bears host Rivals United

Sept. 27--Mount Airy hosts a cancer awareness volleyball tournament today.

Rivals United brings together North Surry, East Surry and Surry Central for a full day of hardcourt action.

The tournament originally was planned to raise awareness of breast cancer, but it has taken on a deeper meaning since one of the Granite Bears' own is battling cancer.

Earlier this season, the Bears held a tribute to junior Taylor Bouma, who has Ewing sarcoma, a type of bone cancer. Bouma is an honor student who recently was one of 78 Bears to receive an academic letter honor for maintaining a 4.0 grade point average last fall.

Bear coach Chuck Morris was a leader in organizing this event, but he will not participate himself as he is home recovering from an undisclosed illness that had him in the hospital a couple of days last week.

It looks like Oct.6 or so before the doctors will release him, Morris said Friday. The coach said he is catching up on PAC 12 and Big 10 volleyball matches that he recorded.

As for the breast cancer connection, Morris said the area division of Susan G Komen has given grants to Northern Hospital of Surry County for $45,000 a year to help fund mammograms, biopsies and other cancer procedures for folks in this community who are without health insurance or are underinsured.

Since the Komen grants have been in place, the imaging center at Northern Hospital has provided more than 1,400 breast imaging procedures at no cost to the individuals, said Morris.

The Imaging Center staff will have a table at the gym providing information regarding these services as well as passing out literature to the students and their families. One of the main focuses this year is to reach high school and college females to educate them regarding self-awareness in regards to breast cancer.

Matches will begin at 10 a.m. with the Bears taking on Surry Central, followed 30 minutes later by East Surry versus North Surry.

In order to give the varsity players time to rest and rehydrate, the midday match will be a JV showdown between Mount Airy and North Surry.

Half an hour after that match, East Surry and Central will play. Thirty minutes after that, the day concludes with Mount Airy vs North Surry.

"We will have a 50/50 drawing for each match, door prizes during each match, a Wall of Honor, T-Shirt sales and several other fundraising events for the day," said Morris. "We invite all of the citizens to come out and support these young ladies in this very worthwhile fundraising event."

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