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Team Jack to benefit from NU senior football event April 20 at MCC Events Center
Nebraska football fans can enjoy a special treat in McCook April 20 and help contribute to a worthy cause.
A special night is planned Saturday, April 20, at the MCC Events Center in McCook. Nebraska Cornhusker football seniors from the 2012 season will take off their helmets and pads and put their basketball skills on display against a group of "veteran" athletes who are coaches at high schools in the Gazette area.
Team Jack the be the special focus of the evening.
Husker Hoops, the team of former NU football seniors from last fall, will face the Southwest Nebraska Area Celebrity All-Stars in a charity basketball exhibition. The roundball special event will tip-off Saturday at 7 p.m. at the MCC Events Center on the McCook Community College campus on East M St. just north of Weiland Field.
The special event is sponsored by the McCook Optimist Club. Admission prices will be $4 each for adults, $1 each for students, with pre-school children admitted free of charge.
Tickets will be available at the door Saturday.
Husker fans can avoid possible long lines at the ticket booth by purchasing advance tickets available at several locations, including the Sports Shoppe, McCook National Bank and Sehnert's Bakery, all located on Norris Avenue in downtown McCook.
NET PROCEEDS from Saturday's event will benefit the Team Jack Foundation, the organization spearheaded by family and friends of Jack Hoffman. Jack, a 7-year-old from Atkinson, Neb., is battling brain cancer. Jack made national headlines with his thrilling 69-yard touchdown run during the Nebraska Spring Game at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln April 6.
The video of Jack's special touchdown run has drawn well over seven million hits on You Tube.
Husker fans will remember watching Jack and Isaiah Casillas take the Tunnel Walk with the Nebraska team before last year's NU-Wisconsin football game at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln. Casillas, the McCook boy who also battled brain cancer, passed away last year.
One of the goals of Team Jack is to raise awareness of young cancer patients, especially those with pediatric brain cancer.
Nebraska football players participating in the McCook charity game plan to hold an autograph session following Saturday night's game at the MCC Events Center.
THE HUSKER squad will be comprised of senior members of the 2012 Nebraska football team. Wauneta-Palisade High School graduate Taylor Dixon and former NU wide receiver Tim Marlowe are slated to play for the Husker team. Other former Huskers expected to participate include Jase Dean, Sean Fisher, KC Hyland, Matt Manninger, Conor McDermott, Brent Moravec, Courtney Osborne, Steven Osborne, P.J. Smith and Alonzo Whaley.
Marlowe is the team coordinator for Husker Hoops. Tim said the Husker team has played several games so far this spring across the Cornhusker State, traveling to venues such as Fairbury, Norfolk and O'Neill and even across the eastern border to Glenwood, Iowa.
Marlowe said in a phone interview April 18 that the former Huskers have enjoyed getting out to communities around the state and having the opportunity to meet Nebraska fans and a chance to bring a little touch of Nebraska football to fans across the state.
Fans can also expect a quality brand of basketball Saturday.
"We do have some pretty good basketball players and we will definitely put on a good show for the fans," Marlowe said.
McCOOK OPTIMIST CLUB representative Bob Elder has compiled an impressive list of area college and high school coaches to fill the Southwest Nebraska Celebrity roster.
Veteran Southwest High School coach Dennis Troester retired last spring after more than 40 years of service coaching girls volleyball and girls basketball. Troester has been coaxed out of retirement to serve as a celebrity coach for the Southwest All-Star squad.
Randy Geier, co-head coach of the 2012 six-man prep football state champion Wauneta-Palisade Broncos, will join Troester to guide the area all-star team as a celebrity coach.
Former McCook High School head boys basketball coach Tim Garcia, the McCook Elementary School principal, is also expected to participate, along with McCook Community College basketball coaches Brandon Lenhart and Kylie Rinehart.
Other celebrity team members include Josh Graves and Brett Webster of Cambridge, Derek Bantam and Scott Johnsen of Medicine Valley, Dave Kuhlen of Wauneta-Palisade, Mike Tines of Hitchcock County, Marty Hughes of Dundy County-Stratton, Matt Cox of Hayes Center, Kip Stephens of Arapahoe, Jeremy Epp of Southern Valley and Marcus Bish of Southwest.