Girls’ volleyball hosted a breast cancer awareness event at their pink out game on Oct. 10 in support of Rosana Rivera-Betancourt, the mother of volleyball captain and senior Mari Alvarado-Rivera.
Rivera-Betancourt was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011 while pregnant with Alvarado-Rivera’s younger sister. She recovered and was diagnosed with it again during the summer of 2024. She underwent surgery to remove the tumor on Oct. 8 and is currently recovering, according to Alvarado-Rivera.
“Knowing [about the diagnosis] made it even more important that we host an event, draw awareness to it, support Mari as best as we could and the family too,” head coach and social studies teacher Martasian said. “We just wanted to contribute in some small way, especially to a family that has contributed a lot to the volleyball program. We were very glad to do a little something to recognize what they’re going through.”
During the game, the team collectively raised over $800 toward cancer research by the Sideout Foundation, according to Alvarado-Rivera.
“[My mom] was surprised about how much money we made because it’s a lot of money, and we didn’t think that it’d be such a huge event,” Rivera said. “None of us realized how much of an impact it had on the community.”
With the event, Rivera-Betancourt hopes to bring more awareness to women’s health, especially for young girls. Bringing attention to breast cancer in different forms, such as at a sports game, can help shed light on its effects for young girls who have never experienced medical emergencies, according to Rivera-Betancourt.
“It gives you a different perspective in life,” Rivera-Betancourt said. “Back when it happened, you’re banking on being young and invincible, feeling like that stuff doesn’t happen to me, it happens to others. So I think whenever anybody has a health crisis, it gives you that wake-up call that you gotta value the things that matter the most, and health is super important.”
People feel the weight of a health crisis more when it happens to someone they know, according to Rivera-Betancourt. With the pink-out game, Martasian hopes to honor both Rivera-Betancourt and the work put in by the team to draw awareness to the things more important than a game.
“I hope that the other girls just recognize that at the end of the day, it really isn’t about the wins and the losses,” Martasian said. “We care much more about who they are as people and their characters. Hopefully, the girls walked away knowing how much we value all of them, and for Mari and [her family], recognizing how much not just the coaches, but the rest of the players in the program appreciate and value them too.
