West Chicago youth football teams wearing pink for cancer awareness

Fans of the West Chicago Wildcat Youth Football Organization will be seeing pink this weekend at homecoming games.

All 14 teams — that’s 232 players and coaches — will be trading their blue uniform socks for bright pink ones to raise awareness for breast cancer.

“It’s pretty neat,” longtime coach Doug Lazzerini said.

Lazzerini’s wife, Gina, is a breast cancer survivor who recently passed the five-year cancer-free mark. His sister, mother and mother-in-law also have been struck by the disease.

Until breast cancer hit his family hard, Lazzerini said he didn’t realize how many women are diagnosed each year.

Since then, the Lazzerinis and their extended family have been involved in fundraisers here and in Virginia, where his sister lives, to raise money for breast cancer research.

Lazzerini’s team was the first in the Wildcat organization to wear pink socks during Breast Cancer Awareness month. The following year, several other teams signed on. This year, the entire youth football organization is being provided with pink socks.

Donna Schoenenberger, homecoming coordinator, dyed 350 pairs of white athletic socks in 5-gallon buckets filled with pink dye.

She also arranged for Hairazing Styles of Carol Stream to offer pink hair extensions for $5 during the homecoming games. All donations will go to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

The youth football league homecoming games are Saturday, Oct. 1, and Sunday, Oct. 2, at Community High School in West Chicago.