NORWICH – For a third straight year, Norwich High School athletes, students, cheerleaders and coaches are coming together to fight cancer, beginning with Friday night’s varsity football game versus defending class A state champions Maine-Endwell.

During the game, members of the NHS football team and cheerleading squad will show their support by donning pink, the traditional color for breast cancer awareness, according to NHS Varsity Cheerleading Coach Marie DeSarro. Additional sports teams – throughout the fall – will also participate, she added, with athletes sporting various colors representing different types of cancer.

“The ‘pink game’ has become more and more successful over the past three years, and every year teams are finding new ways to show their support and raise awareness in the fight against cancer,” said DeSarro. “Our goal, looking forward, is to have all teams participate in some way.”

In the future, DeSarro said she’d like to hold some type of fundraiser, one held in concert with the now-annual breast cancer awareness game, which is typically held the first Friday in October. For now, however, each team participates in its own way. On Friday, the football team will be wearing pink ribbon stickers on their helmets, while the cheerleaders will once again don their “Cheer For A Cure” uniforms. The cheerleading booster club will also be pitching in, selling pink and blue cancer awareness T-shirts, as well as various other items. Donations will be collected throughout the evening, with all proceeds benefitting the cheerleaders’ 2013 Relay For Life team.