HIGHLANDS RANCH — Her voice was powerful, but it still shook when she spoke. Lauren Lamb explained to the crowd attending last year’s Rock Canyon-Mountain Vista football game how her mother, Jill, had passed away from breast cancer in 2008, and asked for their help in her honor.
She remained strong through the tears as she described how the wasn’t only about supporting breast cancer patients. Her message was a staccato rhythm of passion that fell heavily between the silent notes of pain:
“This foundation supports the boy that just found out his mom will never be able to go to another one of his football games due to her disease. …
“It supports the little girl that just watched her mom check into the hospital overnight. …
“The husband that is watching his beautiful wife lose all of her hair.”
As Lauren, the daughter of Rock Canyon head coach Brian Lamb, walked off the field with Kat Cash — her best friend and the daughter of Mountain Vista head coach Ric Cash — the thought never crossed her mind that soon her mother’s foundation would be supporting the person standing next to her.
Susan Cash, Kat’s mother, was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer April 27. She has two weeks left of chemotherapy.
With all that has happened the past year, the power behind Rock Canyon’s third annual “Think Pink” breast cancer awareness game Saturday — 7 p.m. at Shea Stadium against Mountain Vista — will be magnified. These schools share a deep connection, bound together by their head coaches and their families.
“We decided on a home game in October because that’s breast cancer awareness month, and last year it happened to be against Mountain Vista,” Brian Lamb said. “This will be an annual thing going forward. With Coach Cash’s wife being diagnosed, we’ve basically made that decision because now both head coaches have been directly affected by breast cancer.”
Cash and Lamb families go way back
The Cash and Lamb families have long been close. Aside from the friendship that developed through Lamb holding multiple coaching positions with Mountain Vista’s freshman through varsity football teams over the years before he headed to Rock Canyon in 2013, the Cash and Lamb kids grew up together too. Kat has four siblings, Lauren two.
Lauren and Kat, both seniors at Mountain Vista, are the foundation of the families’ relationship.
“Kat and Lauren have played softball together since second or third grade and have been friends through that avenue,” Brian Lamb said. “Once they went to middle school and high school together, they became very close.”
Coach Lamb started out at Mountain Vista in 2003 as the freshman coach, and then moved over to varsity as the offensive coordinator. After Jill passed away, Lamb took two years off to spend more time with his daughters.
“Then he came back and wanted to coach again,” Coach Cash said. “At that time, I didn’t have a spot at the varsity level. He agreed to take the JV. He did some really great things.”
It was noticed. In 2013, Lamb was named the head coach at Rock Canyon. He started the “Pink” football game in his first season at the school in honor of his wife.
“I wanted to honor her and all those who have gone through breast cancer,” Lamb said. “We also want to support the Jill Lamb Foundation, which is our organization that we choose to fund-raise for.”
Mountain Vista adds “Pink Week”
It started with a football game three years ago, but Rock Canyon has now embraced breast cancer awareness month, and most of the school’s fall sports teams will have a “Pink Game” during the school’s “Pink Week.”
One in eight women will be diagnosed with the disease in their lifetimes, according to .
This is Mountain Vista’s inaugural “Pink Week,” meanwhile, and all proceeds from fundraising activities this week, such as a bake sale, will go to the Cash family. All proceeds from Rock Canyon’s fundraising efforts will benefit the Jill Lamb Foundation.
During Saturday’s game, there will be a “miracle minute” during halftime, when a bucket will be passed around so people can donate. All proceeds will go to the Cash family.
Lauren and Kat will speak again, side by side, before the game, just like last year. But this time, things are different.
“It was a hard time,” Kat Cash said of her speech last year. “It was nerve-wracking going into it, but this year even more so. Just because it’s so different than it was last year, and it’s so recent. We’re going through it right now.”
Without hesitation, Lauren Lamb said she would probably talk first at this year.
“It’s kind of like we switched roles,” Lauren said.
The Jill Lamb Foundation
The Jill Lamb Foundation is a small nonprofit organization created to assist families currently dealing with breast cancer.
When it started: August 2008, by a close family friend of the Lambs, named Stephanie Cegielski
Ways the foundation assists: Rendering services around the house, meal preparation, errands, transportation, grocery shopping and helping out with financial support for cancer treatment or medical bills
How to donate: Visit to donate money directly, participate in fundraising events specifically for the foundation or purchase items such as t-shirts and car magnets to benefit the organization
Morgan Dzakowic: 303-954-1275, mdzakowic@denverpost.com or @morgandzak
