Evoking the 'Don't Quit' spirit

IU football coach Bill Lynch and hundreds of other students, faculty, athletes and community members honored the legacy of the late coach Terry Hoeppner on Saturday at the second annual Coach Hep Indiana Cancer Challenge at Memorial Stadium.

The event featured a 2K family walk, a 5K run, a 25K family bike ride, a 50K cycle and a 100K cycle.

Tables of student volunteers with the IU Foundation and the American Cancer Society were sprawled across the football practice fields. Athlete teams and individuals of all ages were signing in, tagging themselves with numbers and warming up on the turf.

Lynch stood by, taking it all in as he took a bite from his Snickers bar and exhaled.

“This is a great event that properly honors the legacy of Coach Hep,” he said. “Cancer has touched so many of us in different ways.”

For Tammy Smith, administrative assistant for the American Cancer Society, it means being a cancer survivor and sharing her knowledge with the community.

“Being affected by cancer is how I got here to where I am today,” she said. “I’m thankful for what I’ve been through and I’m stronger because of it.”

Sharing in this motivation to spread awareness is what got local physician Rick Schilling and Terry Hoeppner’s wife Jane Hoeppner to start the Coach Hep Cancer Challenge to raise money for cancer awareness.

Schilling approached Jane Hoeppner after his father-in-law died of cancer, keeping in the spirit of coach Hoeppner’s “Don’t Quit” attitude.

“My father-in-law never quit and that’s what inspired me,” he said. “This affects all of us, regardless of race, gender and age.”

Jane Hoeppner will never quit either.

“We’ve been there and done that, you know,” Jane Hoeppner said. “We feel motivated more through things like this event to help find a cure.”

She said part of the appeal for the event was the combination of having a good time for a good cause and getting exercise. She gushed at how well the community has taken to the event.

“The online regular cash donations are already up from last year,” she said. “The Big Ten Network is going to be here as well. It’s all quite overwhelming.”

Nearby, IU volleyball team members were giggling and placing volunteer name tags on their crimson-colored T-shirts.

Sophomore Caitlin Cox said this was the team’s first time at the challenge.

“We thought it would be good for our team to get out into the community and do something worthwhile,” she said.

Senior Kelsey Hall said she wants the community to get to know the women’s volleyball team in a setting outside of practices and games.

Hall and her teammates handed out water to the runners at a station along North Jordan Avenue during the 5K, the day’s final event.

At the water station adjacent to Alpha Omega Pi sorority house, the women shared stories about how cancer has affected them, while feverishly running to hand out fresh water in Coca-Cola cups to children and their parents, and even to a fireman who was running in full gear despite the humidity and cloudy skies.

Steve Coover of the Bloomington Fire Department doused himself with water.

“Thank you, girls, for being here,” he shouted as he took off after the pack ahead of him.

“Nice pace,” yelled sophomore Mary Chaudoin. The Georgia native said she participated in Relay for Life every year at her high school. Relay for Life is the American Cancer Society’s largest fundraising event that takes place in cities and towns across the country annually.

Junior Taylor Wittmer watched as junior Ashley Benson chased her 4-month-old puppy, Santino, in the street. Wittmer stood away from the crowd for a moment to reflect on how cancer has affected her life.

“My aunt is a leukemia survivor,” Wittmer said. “To live through that despite the family struggles just makes me want to help out more, as much as I possibly can.”