By Chris Goldberg
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 4/20/09
This was one game where everybody was a winner.
It didn’t matter much that Merion Mercy defeated Sacred Heart Thursday in an Athletic Association of Catholic Academies contest. Each was victorious 
in the fight against breast cancer in the name of the Kelly Rooney Foundation and has been named the Katie Samson Female Scholastic Co-Team of the Week.
Kelly Rooney died of breast cancer on July 11, 2006 following a relentless four-year battle. Two of her daughters, Casey (junior) and Haley (freshman) are lacrosse players at Merion Mercy. A third daughter, Molly (freshman) plays lacrosse and attends Sacred Heart.
To continue their mother’s fight, Merion standouts Margaret and Emily Corzel led an organized array of activities and events to make the entire game devoted to raising money for the Foundation while increasing awareness of breast cancer.
T-shirts that read ‘Lax Love Cure” were created and sold along with bumper stickers, pins, hats and armbands were sold. The girls publicized the event with flyers and noticed on Facebook and about $1,500 was raised at the two schools. After the varsity and JV games, 
there were tailgates set up for the fans, with pizza, hoagies, and snacks.
“I know that at Merion our girls are so supportive of one another,” said Merion coach Danielle McCaffrey. “Although I never specifically asked what yesterday meant to them, you could tell by their willingness to participate and make the day such a success for the Rooney family that it meant something special to each of the girls and their families.
“They truly respect Casey, Molly, and Haley for being so strong and for living without their mom.”
McCaffrey, who noted that Merion and sacred Heart girls have been participating in many other fundraising activities since the Foundation as established three years ago, said the Rooney daughters have shown great courage in dealing with their mother’s death.
“I think the Rooney girls deal with losing their mom at such a young age with such maturity, that I am in awe of how strong they are with dealing with such a life altering experience,” McCaffrey said. “All of the fundraising they do helps to keep their Mom’s spirit and fight alive.
“I believe that doing something as personal as dedicating the game yesterday, the game that they all love to play, to their Mom, truly shows that they will continue to fight for a cure of Breast Cancer.”
Emily Corzel said the event was the culmination of much planning.
“We’ve kind of talked about it the last two years because we wanted to have a game to benefit the foundation and since Casey and Haley are on our team and Molly is on Sacred Heart, this was the year to do it,” Corzel said. “I’m a senior and my sister and Casey are juniors and we felt this was such a good cause and we felt we could make it fun and involve lacrosse
“Mr. Rooney played a big part in organizing it, he ordered wristbands and we dyed the socks pink. We wanted to raise awareness and do something in Mrs. Rooney’s name. We thought it was a nice way to show our respect and show support of the whole Rooney family.”
To learn more about the Kelly Rooney Foundation, please click here
To nominate a squad for the Female Team of the Week, please e-mail us at golax@phillylacrosse.com
Leave a Reply