Men's Soccer Pink Out to Support Live4Gen Breast Cancer Awareness

In May of 2009, Elms College Head Men's Soccer coach Ben Masse was a student-athlete representing the Blazers at the NCAA National Student-Athlete Conference. Among 600 other student-athletes from all over the country gathered in Orlando, FL, Masse met San Diego State University Women's Basketball player Jerica Williams. "Jerica has an infectious personality, is a positive leader, and exactly the type of person I like to surround myself with" Masse said. "Our friendship has continued since the conference and even though our interactions have been infrequent, they are very important to me" he continued. Williams has since become a publicist at the founder of JACE, a public relations organization specializing in sports and entertainment. She has worked with the likes of NBA All-Star Baron Davis, #7 overall NBA Draft pick Julius Randle, and Olympic gold medalist Ed Moses.

One of Williams's high school basketball teammates at Mount Miguel High School was Genevieve Costello. Together, Williams and Costello won three California Interscholastic Federation championships. Costello then went on to play at the University of California, Davis on a basketball scholarship. After graduating, though, at the tender age of 26, Costello lost her battle with Breast Cancer in 2013. In response, Williams founded Live4Gen to increase breast cancer awareness and breast cancer research while honoring Genevieve Costello's wonderful life. "Our friendship started on the basketball court and… we became family; she was my sister" Williams said.

So, when Coach Masse and the Elms Men's Soccer team wanted to host a Pink Out game, he knew exactly what organization he wanted to support. Currently, Jerica Williams is Varsity Girls Basketball coach at Harvard-Westlake School Los Angeles, CA, so Masse reached out to her about the event, and it didn't take long before shirts were printed and fundraising efforts began. "I sent her a message about wanting to honor Genevieve and support Live4Gen and she was very excited to have us as an advocate. She sent over the official Live4Gen logos and our players began taking orders for the same warmup shirts we would wear on the field" Masse said.

On Saturday October 24 2015, the Elms College Men's Soccer team hosted a Pink Out game at home. The team wore pink warmup shirts during pregame that read "Elms Soccer" on the front accompanied by a breast cancer ribbon. On the back, the shirts read "Live4Gen".

If you would like to donate to Live4Gen visit http://www.alljace.com/live4gen.

Photos from Blazers Pink Out Game available here

ELMS SOCCER