Queensbury High School’s own Tyler Carey has worked tirelessly over the past decade to organize the annual Power of Pike volleyball tournament.
This year is the 14th annual occurrence. The tournament honors former Queensbury physical education teacher Jennifer Pike who is living with a rare form of blood cancer. The tournament has been named “Power of Pike” in her honor. Students wear headbands and t-shirts representing different types of cancer, and the type of cancer Pike has is represented by zebra stripes.
The event stretched over two weekends, where 30 teams competed to win the tournament. Teams were created from specific school districts, groups of teachers, and even a Queensbury UFSD teachers team formed.
A long list grew of participating schools, including Averill Park High School, Burnt Hills Ballston Lake High School, Cambridge Central School District, Colonie, Hudson Falls, Lake George, Mechanicville, Mohonasen, Saratoga, and Schenectady, just to name a few.
Every $2,000 raised through the Power of Pike tournament allows The Side-Out Foundation to provide an unprecedented analysis to metastatic breast cancer patients and their oncologists. This unique analysis ranks treatment solutions and clinical trials for each patient that can substantially improve the length and quality of their life.
Because of the number of teams involved, the Power of Pike tournament has become the largest fundraising tournament in the nation supporting the Side-Out Foundation.
In the weeks and months leading up to the games, students fundraise, going door-to-door in suburbs and working with local businesses. For Queensbury students, the Power of Pink tournament has a legacy. Entire generations of classmates across Queensbury have stepped up to beat each previous year’s amount raised.
During the games, the fundraiser was supported with raffles and items for sale, as well as food trucks. This year, the raffle included over $700 in Yeti-brand gear, including coolers and thermoses.
“This year we set the bar really high and tried to beat our previous record of $56,000. We managed to do that, as our current total is over $60,000 raised, and fundraising is still going on,” said Coach Tyler Carey. “It was an amazing two weekends. Queensbury’s Varsity team won the entire tournament, and raised the most of all the schools with over $8,900 coming from Queensbury alone. We could not have done it without the support of our community.”
