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Sports

Coaches vs. Cancer Raises Nice Sum

Coaches vs. Cancer presented a check in between the Lower Merion-Harriton doubleheader.

It’s a deadly disease that strikes someone you know, or it afflicts the friend of a friend. Cancer is like that. It also causes great bonding and outpouring of aid from strangers, including a group of amazing children from the area.

has been a great magnet in drawing large sums of money toward treating cancer, and Tuesday night at Lower Merion High School, in between the Harriton-Lower Merion girls-boys doubleheader, a check was presented to St. Joseph’s University basketball coach Phil Martelli in the amount of $2,000 from the Penn Valley Junior Sports Association.

“Everywhere you go throughout the country, people are envious of what
we’ve done with the Coaches vs. Cancer organization and the great help we’ve received,” Martelli said.

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“I can say of the young kids today, we can never accuse them of being selfish. I’ve been actively associated with Coaches vs. Cancer for 16 years now, and it’s grown tremendously. Think about it. The last two years we began a children’s initiative, and that’s raised $300,000 toward cancer. It says how special these kids are.”

Marc Eisman, the executive director of the Penn Valley Junior Sports Association, was there to present the check to Martelli, along with Brett, Dillon and Billy Schwab, who lost their father to cancer.

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“We raised the money during the first weekend of our season, and we the organization decided to match it,” Eisman said. “This is the first year we did this, and we’ll be doing it every year from now on after this. We work very closely with Harriton and Lower Merion, and both schools have been great, as has the Coaches vs. Cancer organization.”

Martelli was the second Big 5 coach in as many months to appear at Lower Merion's Kobe Bryant Gym on behalf of Coaches vs. Cancer. pep rally / tip-off event in early December. 

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