Upper Merion coach Tom Schurtz teamed with his brother Bob and the basketball teams at West Windsor Plainsboro South High School to raise money for breast cancer.
By Mary Jane Souder
Raising funds for a worthy cause is nothing new to Tom Schurtz and his Upper Merion basketball team, but this year’s sale of pink ‘Conquering a Cure’ t-shirts was personal for the Vikings’ coach, whose mother, Mary Ellen Schurtz, was diagnosed with breast cancer early last summer.
Although his mother’s prognosis is very good, Tom and his brother Bob decided to undertake a joint project to raise money for breast cancer. Bob Schurtz is the varsity boys’ basketball coach at West Windsor Plainsboro South High School, and the siblings had often discussed the idea of holding a boys-girls doubleheader.
This year, the siblings made it happen.
“It just never worked out,” Schurtz said. “With my mom being sick, we really wanted to do something special to try and attack this horrendous disease.
“We were able to get our schedules lined up, and coach (Jason) Quenzer of the boys was nice enough to move his schedule around so we could play a boys-girls doubleheader.”
The double header – a full pinkout - was held on Saturday, Dec. 21, at West Windsor, and $1,500 was raised for the local chapter of the Breast Cancer Resource Center in Princeton.
“We wanted to do something local that gave it right back to the community,” Schurtz said.
The teams sold over 400 t-shirts, and the doubleheader drew fans from both sides.
“It was a great atmosphere,” Schurtz said. “My brother is a teacher in the building at West Windsor, and we also had a lot of people from Upper Merion.
“It was nice to see the community rally around this. So many people have stories like this where they have family members affected by cancer. We tried to do something we could control that was fun for our mom.”
Teaching school and coaching basketball has been a family affair for the Schurtz family. Schurtz’s father was a teacher for more than 30 years and spent most of that time on the sidelines as either a girls or boys basketball coach. His mother also taught school and is now principal at the grade school Schurtz and his siblings attended. His sister Kass teaches special education at Absegami and is the assistant girls’ basketball coach.
When Mary Ellen began losing her hair, the men in her life – Tom, Bob and their father – buzz cut their hair. On the day of the double header, Bob’s entire West Windsor team shaved their heads.
“It was a touching tribute to him and how much he means to their program,” Schurtz said. “I thought it was really classy on their part.”
With more than 25 family members in attendance, including his mother, Schurtz’s Lady Viking squad defeated West Plainsboro South 53-42 behind 22 first-half points from Regie Robinson.
“In terms of handling and managing emotions, having Regie play well in the first quarter made it easier to focus on the game and not have to think about the larger meaning of the game,” Schurtz said. “I was happy with not only the money raised, but the community response was just tremendous from Upper Merion and West Windsor.”
Two communities supporting a worthy cause that, on this day, was personal.
- Log in to post comments
