Bruins to Celebrate NGWSD, “Pink Zone”, Women’s Golf at Basketball DH Friday

NEWBERG, Ore. - A full slate of halftime activities will punctuate the George Fox University basketball doubleheader this Friday, Jan. 28, as the Bruins celebrate National Girls and Women in Sports Day, participate in the “Pink Zone” for breast cancer awareness and research, and honor the 2009-10 Northwest Conference-winning women’s golf team.

George Fox will host Pacific Lutheran University in the conference twinbill on Friday, with the women’s game at 6:00 p.m. and the men’s game at 8:00 p.m.  The Bruin women are currently 13-5 on the season and, at 7-2 in the conference, are half a game behind league-leading Lewis & Clark College.  The George Fox men at 5-13 overall and 3-6 in the conference, but are coming off a high-scoring 117-100 win over Willamette University on Tuesday.

Pink Zone: The “Pink Zone” is a program originated by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association to help raise breast cancer awareness and support cancer research efforts on the court, across campuses, in communities and beyond.  Last year, over 1,800 schools and organizations reached more than 922,000 basketball fans across the nation and combined to raise over $1,045,000 in donations.  Overall, the WBCA “Pink Zone” has raised nearly $3.3 million, has reached almost 7.7 million fans, and unified over 4,700 participants in just four years.

Fans are encouraged to stage a “Pink-Out”, by wearing pink to the games to show their support of all efforts to cure cancer.  The “Pink Zone” effort at George Fox will continue throughout both basketball games, with a portion of the gate receipts being designated for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure cancer research foundation.  The women’s basketball team will wear pink shirts while warming up, and pink T-shirts will be given away during the women’s game.  The WBCA “Pink Zone” initiative provides a useful list of breast cancer facts and statistics which can be accessed here.

Women’s Golf: At halftime of the women’s game, the Bruin women’s golf team will be recognized and a banner will be unfurled celebrating the team’s first-ever NWC championship in only its fourth season of intercollegiate competition.  Under coach MaryJo McCloskey, who initiated the women’s golf program at George Fox in the spring of 2006, last year’s Bruins went 65-9, won eight of their 11 tournaments in which they participated, shared their first conference crown with Whitworth University, earned a No. 7 regular season national ranking, and finished eighth in their first NCAA Division III National Championship Tournament appearance.

Three Bruins - Brianna Nap, Mandy Cameron, and Kelsey Morrison - earned All-Conference and All-West Region honors, and Nap was named a Second Team All-American by the National Golf Coaches Association.  Cameron and Abby Mann were named to the NCAA Division III All-American Scholar Team, and Cameron also made the 2009-10 ESPN The Magazine / CoSIDA Academic All-District VIII College Division At-Large Second Team.  McCloskey, who has guided the Bruins to an overall record of 144-66-1 (.685) in four years, was named the West Region Coach of the Year by the NGCA.

National Girls and Women in Sports Day: At halftime of the men’s game, the university will recognize all its senior women in intercollegiate athletics and athletic training.  Robin Taylor, a former women’s basketball player (2003-07) at George Fox and a member of the first golf team who was named the Bruin Athletic Association Women’s Athlete of the Year for 2006-07, will address the seniors at halftime.  A short reception, ,for the senior women athletes will be held in the upstairs lobby of the Wheeler Sports Center immediately following the halftime ceremonies, sponsored by The Sweetest Thing, a local bakery.

The National Girls and Women in Sports Day began in 1987 as a day to remember Olympic volleyball player Flo Hyman, an activist for equality in women’s sports who died of Marfan’s Syndrome in 1986 while competing in a volleyball tournament in Japan. Since then, it has evolved into a day to acknowledge the past and to recognize current sports achievements, the positive influence of sports participation, and the ongoing struggle for equality and access for women in sports.

Sponsors for the entire evening include Newberg Ford, West Coast Bank, Gregg Hottman Insurance, and Technocom.

For more information, call the George Fox department of athletics at 503-554-2910.