Throughout October, the Girls Soccer (GVS), Girls Volleyball (GVB), and Boys Soccer (BVS) traded their usual blue for pink uniforms in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The tradition began in 2015, when the Girls Field Hockey team hosted its first annual “Plays for Pink” game against Middlesex, inspired by former Andover and Middlesex faculty member Olivia Atchtmeyer. With about one in eight women getting diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime, these games aim to raise awareness and continue the fight against the disease.
Isabel Park ’28, member of Girls Soccer, fights for the ball.
“It’s always an honor to play for GVS and to play for a team, but also, with that movement, you play for everyone. You play for yourself, you play for the team, you play for the coaches, you play for your families. Especially if you have family members or anyone who’s been affected by this, you do feel a bigger weight personally… There are certain schools that would only care about the wins, the losses, et cetera. It’s a good movement that shows that it’s more than a game and a team. We’re all humans at the end of the day.” – Isabel Park ’28
“As a team, we feel really proud to be part of something bigger than ourselves. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and wearing pink or taking part in events like this helps us show support for people who are fighting or have fought breast cancer,” said Arias. “The jerseys are a visual reminder of why we were doing it, and it brought a positive energy to the team…When people come to our games and see the pink jerseys, it starts conversations and reminds everyone that we’re all in this together. It’s a tradition that connects us to something larger than athletics.” – Alexis Arias ’28
“Breast cancer awareness is something Andover strives to promote, and BVS is no different… We have only lost one game of our four in October, and though the jerseys don’t give us a physical advantage, we’d like to think they give us a little more fight.” – Mathew Shampine ’26
