Think Pink and Show Your Support!

Seph Hatley is an Assistant Coach for the Butler women's basketball program, and a women's basketball correspondent for the HLN Blog.

This is a very important time for the Horizon League women's basketball teams. First, we have finally come to the midway point in conference play and seven teams are within three games of each other! It should be a pretty exciting close to the regular season. But more importantly, for all of college women's basketball, it is time for the WBCA Pink Zone games to raise awareness for breast cancer. The official dates are from Feb. 12-21. Our game is slated for February 13, 2010. But teams are allowed to pick any game to designate as their Pink Zone game.

My awareness on this matter has increased greatly this year due to Coach Couture and her battle with breast cancer this past summer and fall. Before that I had not had any direct contact with someone who had taken on this disease first hand. I was shocked to learn that 1 in 8 women in the United States will be diagnosed with it. That in itself strikes close to home with me having a wife and a daughter.

The thing that has helped me the most though has been watching Coach Couture take this on full force and to even be declared CANCER FREE! Her approach to fighting cancer was no different than her approach to anything else in her life, head on and without hesitation. She didn't accept any preconceived limitations that others had for her. In fact, she rarely missed a day of work throughout her chemotherapy treatments. For coaches, the month of July is an extremely busy time as we travel constantly for recruiting purposes. She still refused to take the time off and one day even had chemo in the morning and then traveled down to Louisville that night to be able to watch AAU games the next day! She has been a sign of strength and determination not only for the team but also for the community at large.

Our most recent game was at Milwaukee and they had their Pink Zone game that day to honor Coach Couture and her fight. She has recently connected with those that had never watched women's college basketball before as they read the article in the Indy Star earlier in the season about her. They contacted her and she responded by meeting with them and sharing her story and just being someone to talk to.

So as we move forward into this conference season there will be something more to play for than just a basketball game. I encourage all of you to get out there and support your local team during their WBCA Pink Zone game!