Sharks to don pink tonight for breast cancer awareness

Posted Oct 9, 2009 by Adam Adkins

Updated Oct 9, 2009 at 11:05 AM

Riverview coach Bruce Gifford said Friday morning that his players will wear pink tape and ribbon stickers on their helmets during tonight’s home game against Durant in honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

National Football League teams and players showed their support of the cause during this past week’s games, with several players and coaches sporting pink apparel during their respective teams games.

Riverview is hoping tonight’s big Class 5A-District 6 home game against Durant will serve as the start of a turnaround to its season, but Gifford knows the matchup is a tough one. The Sharks are entering the game coming off consecutive shutout losses to Plant and Spoto and will face a Cougars defense that has posted shutouts in each of its last two games.

But Gifford believes the Sharks have faced some good tests thus far that has prepared the team for the stretch run in district play. Four of Riverview’s final five games are against district opponents.

“I told our team that two of our three losses are to teams that are now ranked in the top 10 in the state (in their respective classification),” Gifford said, referring to the Panthers and the Spartans. “I told them last week, this whole thing was set up for us to work out what we need to work out before we started playing district games. These are the games that count.”

Riverview will be without one of its top playmakers tonight in James Saunders, who will miss his second consecutive game with a shoulder injury, Gifford said earlier this week. Quarterback Jarid Heffers also is banged up and nursing a foot injury suffered during last week’s loss to Spoto. Backup quarterback Bryson Rogers got a lot of work this week in case Heffers’ injury forces him to the sideline.