To continue the tradition, multiple staff members prepare for Ladue and Clayton’s Coaches versus Cancer basketball game on December 20.

According to Coaches vs. Cancer Wisconsin, “[The event] evolved from a concept championed by Norm Stewart, former head coach of the University of Missouri’s men’s basketball program and cancer survivor.” The theory was to have two teams play against each other while also raising money to help donate to charity. Jim Goldwasser, the STUCO (Student Congress) sponsor, and Chad Anderson, the basketball team’s head coach, brought the tradition to LHWHS.

“It’s been going on for over 12 years. It’s just a great event, perfect situation…and it’s just a great way to raise money for a good cause,” Anderson said.

The basketball game is routinely promoting the American Cancer Society. In order to raise the most amount of money possible, STUCO sells T-shirts and plans on having other mini games that would help raise even more money for the charity.

“At the event we collect money at halftime and we see how much money we can raise in one minute, so does Clayton. So we have we do kids running around with buckets and people put money in. Then we count it up, and whoever wins, wins, but we’re working together to defeat cancer,” Goldwasser said.

This year, the event is expected to be hosted at Ladue’s longtime rival school—Clayton. Every year, Ladue continues to host with Clayton since the constant competition leads the event to be more entertaining and easier to plan.

“The athletic director at the time, and the Clayton athletic director agreed that this…rivalry game [would make] attendance [go] up,” Goldwasser said.

However, because of switches in conferences, Clayton and Ladue do not meet in the regular season. Because of this, there had to be some changes to accommodate for the alteration.

“The game is scheduled by the athletic directors. This year it’s on December 20. Historically, it’s been in February when Clayton was in our conference but… [now] it’s a pre conference schedule. And so, this opportunity was brought to me by the athletic director and STUCO jumped up,” Goldwasser said.

However, this small inconvenience did not reduce the amount of enthusiasm for the game. After months of preparing for the 1,500 students that usually attend the game, Goldwasser and Anderson are expecting to continue to make a thrilling event.

“It’s always a good game and atmosphere and it’s a lot of fun for our kids…I think it’s a game that, especially our seniors, they remember for the rest of their life, because of the atmosphere they play [in],” Anderson said.