On August 31, 2022, Piute High School held its annual Pink game. It is called a Pink game because, in honor of people fighting cancer, the whole gym turns pink with supportive pink clothing, ribbons, and decorations. This year’s Pink game was against the Bryce Valley Mustangs.
Back in 2020 Piute and Bryce Valley were supposed to have a Pink game, but due to COVID the game was canceled. The game this year not only was a welcome do-over for both the schools, but also helped raise money for Danny Brinkerhoff (from Bryce Valley) and Deanna Higgins (from Piute) who both have or have had cancer.
To prepare for the Pink game, Piute High School’s volleyball team went around the county and asked businesses to donate either money or something to auction off. They were able to gather lots of items for the auction and raise lots of money to go to Danny and Deanna. When fans entered the game they were greeted by a table of all the sponsors and prizes to choose from.
Before the game started, Piute had everyone who had cancer or who had beaten cancer stand up. The room went quiet as a few figures rose from the crowd. The volleyball seniors presented each of these strong individuals with one of Holly Westwood’s famous cinnamon rolls. Then Deanna Higgins started the game off by doing the first serve.
In between sets of the game, Piute’s cheerleaders raffled off the items. Anyone in the crowd — no matter what team they were cheering for — could win these prizes.
In the end Piute won the Pink game, but more importantly, Deanna and Danny won. Not only were they shown love, but they saw that they have a whole community behind them — a community that will make sacrifices to stand by them and support them.
– by Ari Hurdsman (17) Junction
Feature image caption: Deanna Higgins and Coach Jessen at the Pink game.
All pictures courtesy Mandy Morrill and Rachel Hockett.
Ari Hurdsman – Junction
Ari Hurdsman is a junior journalist at the Byway. She just recently moved to Ephraim, Utah, where she is a freshman at Snow College. She enjoys writing about Piute sports, and she’s really good at it! In her free time, she enjoys singing, dancing, reading and hanging out with friends and family.