ATHENS,OH - The Southern Ohio Copperheads partnered up with Turn It Gold (TIG), a non-profit organization which raises awareness with families impacted by childhood cancers, which included the help of local business Precision Imprints, which made custom gold uniforms for the Copperheads players and staff, along with Passionworks who help decorate the stadium.
Before the game started, Copperheads executive director Annie Valeant presented, Copperheads director of player operations and the man who set up the Turn It Gold night, Trevor Stephens with a custom game jersey and thank him for his hard work. The team would come over and mob him in excitement. Lynn Harter from Turn It Gold, spoke on how Stephens began with the organization while in high school and thanked him for his continued support of their cause over the years. Harter ended the on-field presentation by giving Valant a special thank you gift for hosting the Turn It Gold event.
Stephens said during his game broadcast interview, that he had doing events for Turn It Gold since high school and wanted to find a way to get such a great local organization involevd. While in Annie Valeant class at Ohio Univerity they had a project to come up with game ideas/themes for the 2022 season and Stephens pitched the idea of Turn it Gold night. That next week a meeting was set up with Turn It Gold to begain dissusion on how to put this event on.
Stephens went on to explain that he was honor before the start of the game for all of his hard work in setting up the Turn it Gold game. The broadcast moved into more of a somber, as they recognized that the game was not only for childhood cancer but cancer and other causes in general.
Head Coach TJ Lanning mention during his postgame show that he told the player that today was more for the cause and not another baseball game. Coach said that he lost a family member to cancer and can relate to others at the game and on the Copperheads staff.
During the middle of the 4th inning break the Copperheads invited the family of cancer patient Kyle Rutter to the field for a special presentation, where the Copperheads gave the family a donation of $1,000 and a custom game uniform.
Kyle is currently undergoing Chemotherapy, so he could not make it out to tonight’s game.
At the end of his sophomore year, he was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma after the discovery of a tumor in his leg. After nine months of chemotherapy and several surgeries, Kyle had no evidence of disease for one year. Kyle recently learned that his cancer has returned. His treatment plan includes a year of chemotherapy and radiation.
Prior to his diagnosis, Kyle enjoyed playing football, basketball, and baseball. Now he enjoys hanging out with his friends, hunting, fishing, and playing video games.
Kyle’s mom, Jessica, shared, “Kyle is the strongest person I know. He is my true hero. You don’t know what strength is until you see your child battle such a terrible disease and still smile along the way.”
The Copperheads won the game 14-3 over Grand Lake Mariners by hitting a walkoff grand slam to end the very special night.
