The Nansemond River High School girls’ basketball team will be hosting “Hooping For a Cure” to raise awareness for breast cancer during Friday’s game against visiting King’s Fork High School.

This will be the sixth year the Lady Warriors have held this event, and they do so this year with active support from the American Cancer Society through its Coaches vs. Cancer program.

“For the first time we’re going to be under their umbrella also,” NR coach R. Calvin Mason Sr. said of the society.

According to the organization’s website, Coaches vs. Cancer is a program that “empowers coaches, their teams and communities to join the fight against cancer by participating in awareness efforts, advocacy programs and fundraising activities.”

A representative from the society will be at Friday’s game and will have general information about all forms of cancer for those interested in learning more.

Mason said he has regularly helped make this event possible because he coaches girls’ basketball and because breast cancer “will affect all of us at some point,” he said, often through people we know.

He said he wants others, especially his players, “to understand how it could affect their lives, and then we want the community to understand that, again, this is part of what we do as a program, that we want to work towards a goal of hopefully, one day, ending breast cancer.”

“We want to contribute and we want to help, so we do this each year,” he said.

The Lady Warriors are trying to get everybody attending the game to dress in pink, the color associated with breast cancer awareness.

There will be some events happening during the game, including a bucket challenge, which is designed to encourage donations for the American Cancer Society. During a timed two-minute period, a bucket will be passed around the crowd so donations can be placed in it.

Formal direct donations to the society will also be possible at the event, and Mason said the Lady Warriors will be working during the week to secure donations at school and in the community.

A focal point of Friday’s event will come at halftime of the game when, Mason said, “We’ll be honoring three local (breast cancer) survivors.”

The price of admission for the game, featuring two of the best teams in the Ironclad Conference, will be $6 for spectators ages 11 and up, $4 for children ages 6 to 10 and no cost for children 5 and under.

A portion of the ticket price will be donated to the American Cancer Society.

Tip-off for the game is set for 7:15 p.m.