Coaches vs. Cancer event features benevolent game plan

By Ernie Clark
Staff Writer

GUILFORD — Just the mention of Aliza Jean Stutzman’s name brought a smile to Madison Chadbourne’s face.

“She was just so happy,” said Chadbourne, a Foxcroft Academy senior. Chadbourne and Stutzman were basketball teammates during their middle-school days in the small town of Harmony.

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COACHES VS. CANCER — Many high school coaches took part in the second annual Coaches vs. Cancer benefit game Saturday night at Piscataquis Community High School in Guilford. Taking part were front, from left, Brian Gaw, PCHS; Dawn McLaughlin, Penquis; Russell Tracy, PCHS; Diane Stephen, Foxcroft Academy; Peter Murray, Dexter; Chad Graffam, FA; Mike Bennett, Lee Academy; Jeremy Durost, Penobscot Valley; Lisa Adkins, Piscataquis Community Middle School; Andrew Richard, FA; Jamie Russell, PCHS; and Fred Lazo, Stearns. Back, Tyler Erickson, FA; Crystal Cail, Penquis; Erin Weston, Penquis; Rob Stevens, FA; Trey Gilbert, PCHS; Aaron Knowles, LA; Randy Harris, LA; Alden Gregory, PCHS; Erica Peterson, PCMS; Blake Smith, FA; Brian Clark, Central; and Joe Gallant, PCHS.

“She loved basketball, absolutely loved it, and she gave it 100 percent all the time,” Chadbourne said.

Stutzman died at age 13 in 2013 after an eight-month battle with a brain cancer, but it was the memory of her upbeat personality and enthusiasm for the sport that provided the backdrop as more than 20 high school and middle school basketball coaches from around the region converged Saturday on Piscataquis Community High School to play their second annual Coaches vs. Cancer benefit game.

The event raised nearly $5,000 through gate receipts, raffles and other donations for the Aliza Jean Family Cancer Foundation, which was created by Aliza’s parents, Craig and Karen, to benefit Maine families coping with cancer.

The foundation has worked to assist 20 families stricken by childhood cancer in its first three years and currently is assisting three families simultaneously, according to Craig Stutzman, who also works for SAD 4 in Guilford as a speech therapist.

“Aliza stayed happy throughout the whole thing, she was absolutely bubbly and positive,” Chadbourne said. “As a town, we all came together and it’s amazing to see that the Stutzmans can turn something so bad into something so good and help other people and keep staying positive.”

Chadbourne and the rest of the Foxcroft Academy girls’ basketball team made the biggest donation of the day — the $940 they had raised during the season for a cancer-related cause.

“The Big East Conference challenged everybody during Cancer Awareness Week to raise money, and the girls took that upon themselves,” Foxcroft girls basketball coach Blake Smith said. “We’d been holding onto this money to decide where to put it, and when the girls heard about this event they decided this was where they wanted to donate it.

“It stays local, and some of the players were friends with Aliza Jean so this was something that meant a lot to them,” Smith said.

For Smith and the other participating coaches, the game was a natural encore after last year’s successful debut held at Penquis Valley High School in Milo to benefit Zak Mills, a middle-schooler from LaGrange and the son of Penquis boys varsity coach Jason Mills who successfully battled bone cancer throughout 2015.

“I think the thing that made the biggest impression for having this game again this year was the impression that it made on the coaches last year,” said Piscataquis athletic administrator and girls varsity basketball coach Brian Gaw, who helped organize Saturday’s event.

“When you walked out of that gym you had an intrinsically good feeling that you had done something well and that you had helped somebody in a tangible way, and to a person the thought was, ‘Why don’t we do this every year,’” Gaw said.

The Aliza Jean Family Cancer Foundation was one of the first groups to make a sizable donation to the Mills family when Zak began his fight against cancer, and when it was suggested that proceeds from this year’s game should benefit that foundation the event quickly gained momentum.

“After the game at Penquis last year when the coaches were just hanging out and taking pictures, there was an overwhelming feeling among all the coaches that this needed to happen again,” Piscataquis Community High School boys basketball coach Jamie Russell said. “Not necessarily at Penquis, but we could move it around because unfortunately there’s always going to be someone in need.”

Coaches from as far away as Lee, Millinocket and Blue Hill participated in this year’s event.

“The coaches have the easy part, we get to come play basketball,” Gaw said. “We’re fortunate that we play in an area where people like basketball and support basketball, and when you can come and play a game you like to play — and a lot of us old guys don’t get to play much anymore with two officials and a real crowd — even though it doesn’t always look like real basketball it’s still fun and we get to make a lot of money for a really good cause.

“I don’t think anybody’s looking at the scoreboard. Everybody wins.”

Donations for the foundation can be sent to: Aliza Jean Family Cancer Foundation, c/o Bangor Savings Bank, PO Box 454, Skowhegan, ME 04976.

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COACHES ON THE COURT — Fred Lazo of Stearns High School lays in a shot in front of Foxcroft Academy girls basketball head coach Blake Smith during the Coaches vs. Cancer benefit game Saturday night at Piscataquis Community High School in Guilford.  

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PLAYING FOR A CAUSE — Russell Tracy puts up a free throw during the second annual Coaches vs. Cancer benefit game Saturday night at Piscataquis Community High School in Guilford.