Why NC State baseball created the ‘Victory Over Cancer’ game this weekend
NC State baseball coach Elliott Avent has an 8-year-old nephew, Shane, currently battling a brain tumor. The Wolfpack coach has watched Shane’s fight and was inspired to raise awareness about childhood cancer.
That led Avent to reach out to former NC State standout and current MLB star Trea Turner and to see if he wanted to team up.
As it turned out, Turner and his wife Kristen, a former NC State gymnast, were inspired by legendary basketball coach Jim Valvano‘s story and what he did to create a cancer research foundation during their time as students in Raleigh. The Turners wanted to focus on childhood cancer, funneling their fund through the Jimmy V Foundation.
Once Avent connected the dots from his personal connection to the disease and the Turners idea, he realized this was something he would be able to utilize his team’s platform to raise money for childhood cancer research.
“It’s almost like it ties everybody together,” Avent said. “I thought, ‘That’s it.’”
Now, a few months later, NC State will hold its first annual “Victory Over Cancer” game on Sunday afternoon as the Wolfpack hosts Ball State in its season finale.
Organizing the event
After Avent thought of the idea and teamed up with the Turners, he needed help to get the event from a thought into action. He approached junior left-handed pitcher Win Scott and sophomore infielder Matt Heavner, the team’s student-athlete advisory committee representatives, to lead the charge.
Scott and Heavner soon convened with the entire team, seeking input from the rest of the roster. That was followed by a letter to NC State Athletic Director Boo Corrigan, which later turned into a meeting with the Wolfpack’s top administrator in the department.
From there, the idea was a reality and NC State set the date for April 28.
“It definitely could not have been done with just two people,” Heavner said. “It was a group effort and it’s just a situation that everybody can get behind.”
The Wolfpack will donate all proceeds from Sunday’s game to the fundraiser, which is nearly at $80,000 as of Thursday afternoon, according to Avent. In addition to the monetary donations, NC State will don special uniforms for childhood cancer awareness and will have special programming throughout the game.
While this will be the first childhood cancer research game NC State has put on, the Wolfpack is no stranger to benefit games. The team supports ALS research annually, and Scott believes that the Pack embraces trying to spread awareness and raising money to benefit special causes.
“This is what the team has been about since Day 1,” Scott said. “The team has glued and gelled together as well as I could have asked for. It’s a great locker room to be inside of and being able to do these things, like the ALS game and this cancer research game, is just important because it’s something the team wants to do and it plays a role in the camaraderie of the team.”
Leaving a legacy at NC State
Avent has led the Wolfpack for the last 28 years and while he has taken the red and white to a pair of College World Series appearances, he does not want to be remembered for that.
Instead, Avent wants to leave his mark on the university the same way Valvano and women’s basketball coach Kay Yow did through something bigger than just athletics. The two legendary coaches started foundations that battled cancer — Valvano for all cancers and Yow for women’s cancer — and now Avent wants to do something similar with this annual game.
“I don’t know how much more I have here at this university,” said Avent, who has three years remaining on his current contract. “I feel like I spent most of my life here either as a student, assistant coach, coach or a fan. … As I think about what I’m going to leave here, I do want to leave something that’s outside the realm of baseball.”
Avent is not alone in that thinking. Scott and Heavner, the two players tasked with leading the charge on the event, have the same mindset as their coach.
“This school just having the history of fighting cancer, it’s really awesome,” Heavner said. “I’m just glad I can push it forward and keep getting the message across so we can hopefully end cancer.”
“I’d love for this to be something that goes on for decades and I could bring my kids back to these games,” Scott said.
But for Avent, whose family has been personally affected by childhood cancer, this is a special moment. He was able to get this kicked off and now he hopes it will stick around for the years to come.
“We got the initial thing started,” Avent said. “But I think we’re going to get so many people that want to be involved in this, that this will be something that 10 years from now, I hope we’ll all look up and say, ‘I remember when that started.’”
And when it is time for Avent to hang up his No. 9 NC State jersey, whether that is soon or by the end of his contract, he wants to be remembered by this initiative.
“When I pass that torch on, I don’t ever want to bump into anybody in the grocery store or down on the beach and talk baseball,” Avent said. “I want to talk about this game and what it would be like to see kids fill this thing. That’s what I’m going to be about in the next stage of my life because this is all way more important than what we think we do every day.”
The Victory Over Cancer game is accepting donations online, available here.
