Brett Mills was so close to his grandmother that he had to find a way to honor her memory.

The St. Thomas rugby team, with which Mills is an assistant coach, was looking for a charitable cause to help.

So, as Mills put it, Saturday's inaugural Lady Hager Cup came about through "serendipity."

The Eagles hosted the Cup for their season opener, defeating Westside 32-10 and wearing pink jerseys to support the Pink Ribbons Project, a local organization dedicated to fighting breast cancer. Westside players wore the names of breast cancer survivors on their jerseys, gave them those jerseys following the game and raised $1,708 for the cause.

The Lady Hager Cup is named after Bernice Hager, Mills' grandmother.

"We wanted to bring the community together and start the season in a way that brings a positive light to sports," Mills said.

Planning began just before Christmas. The school had a natural tie-in - Shelly Power, wife of St. Thomas assistant coach Marty Power, is on the Pink Ribbons board.

"So many of our friends and relations have had (breast cancer) that we wanted to give something back to the community and get involved," St. Thomas head coach Jim Wolfinger said. "We've been trying to get involved in some sort of plausible charity work and do something outside ourselves, not about us but for the welfare of the general community. This turned out to be a perfect mix."

Susan Rafte, Executive Director of the Pink Ribbons Project, spoke to the near-capacity crowd at halftime. A breast cancer survivor, Rafte's sister started the organization in the mid-1990s and shifted it from her New York City home to Houston when Rafte's cancer spread to her spine.

"We looked in our own backyard and realized we had a huge problem here in Harris County," Rafte said. "We feel like we can make a big impact here."

St. Thomas also named its All-Decade team at a banquet following the game. The list of 15 players and seven reserves is littered with Division I signees and includes only one current player, Conor Mills. The junior scored a school-record 213 points in 2007, was voted the Offensive Player of the Year and is now the team captain.

The Eagles are coming off a school-record 14 wins in 2007, when they finished second in Texas and eighth in the nation. St. Thomas set 27 school records last season.

Saturday night, the Eagles trailed 3-0 early but rattled off 25 unanswered points in 39 minutes.

But the night's greater message was the reason behind the Cup.

"Guys may not like wearing pink but they (the players) look good," Rafte said. "I think we all should be wearing pink."

Subscribe to this comment's feed