The Waupun Warriors varsity hockey team will be wearing special pink uniforms along with pink socks for their first annual “Pink out the Rink” to be held Saturday, December 17, 2011 at the Waupun Community ice rink at 6:00pm vs. Deforest High School—all for the fight against breast cancer.

“Ideally, I’d like to hold the game in October because it’s National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The only thing is, we don’t have our high school hockey season begin until the middle of November in Wisconsin, so having it as early in the season as possible is the best that we can aim for. I would like to see it happen every year and become a tradition,” said Waupun co-coach Jonathan Schubert.

“The guys on the team love it,” said Schubert of the players’ reaction to pink uniforms. “Of the 20 guys that make up this hockey team you have a handful of them who have been personally affected. It affects our wives, mothers, sisters, aunts. We’re looking forward to a great evening.”

Schubert is all too aware of that, having breast cancer survivors’ within his family. Raising awareness for breast cancer research is nothing new to Coach Schubert, it’s something his family has been promoting from his time at East Catholic Prep school and eventually was promoted enough that it was pick-up by the E.C.A.C. athletic departments. Years ago, the event centered on encouraging people to wear pink to the game, they had pink ribbons and bracelets to sell at the door, as well as opportunities to make a donation.

“I’ve had all kinds of support from Ellie Baldus at Agnesian HealthCare - Central Wisconsin Cancer Program, Keith Milkowski – Athletic Director at Waupun High School, as well as the Waupun youth hockey association,” said Coach Schubert.

Purchasing a “Pink out the Rink” tee-shirt can be ordered by contacting Coach Schubert here or here.

Shirts may also be purchased prior to the game at the Waupun Area High School main office for $10. If you wear your shirt to the game on December 17, 2011 at 6:00 p.m. you will have free admittance. Shirts can also be purchased at the door as well; or you can simply make a contribution if you wish to do so.

All proceeds from the sale of the Waupun Warriors “Pink out the Rink” Tee-shirts, game day ticket sales and any other donations will go to benefit the Central Wisconsin Cancer Program for breast cancer research.

“I personally don’t want this to become just about contributing. The idea of this hockey game is to raise awareness regarding breast cancer and do something to make a difference. I don’t expect the students to contribute a lot, but if we raise the awareness amongst them, then we have done our job,” said Coach Schubert.