Wearing Pink Has A Special Meaning For Dolcetti, Cullen
10/6/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Oct. 6, 2010
SPOKANE, Wash. - Whenever they open their backpacks and reach in for their soccer cleats, senior Catherine Cullen and junior Emma Dolcetti never miss a picture of their respective families inside.
The photos they carry remind the two Gonzaga University women's soccer players the importance of them after a turn of events changed their lives.
The Bulldogs will host Breast Cancer Awareness Day when they open their West Coast Conference season against three-time defending champion and second-ranked University of Portland Sunday at 1 p.m. They will be wearing pink jerseys to commemorate the victims of breast cancer and their families.
Two years ago come January Cullen's father, Michael, passed away due to cancer. Ever since, the Sidney, British Columbia, native has never been alone during the healing process.
"Having support from my friends and family has helped so much," Cullen said. "Once I told everybody back in school what was happening, their support was a huge part of everything. I don't think I could have done it without them."
Cullen thinks about her father often but she also continues to show the desire to stay focused with soccer and school. She said playing soccer and attending classes have really been helpful to the healing process.
"In terms of getting my mind off it I'm just staying busy," Cullen said. "I love being here. The classes and everything that goes along with it just helps."
Since her father passed away, Cullen has never missed a start in the last 33 matches. She has scored a pair of goals, notched four assists and earned the honor of being WCC women's soccer Player of the Week last week for her performance against then- No. 22 ranked University of Southern California and Portland State University.
Cullen was approached by a teammate and fellow British Columbia native who is going through a path she also experienced. Dolcetti's father, Renato, was recently diagnosed with cancer and the native of Vernon felt different kinds of emotions when she learned about it.
"At first I was shocked because you don't think it comes that close to home," Dolcetti said. "You hear about it happening to everybody else, but it was so close that I was both shocked and angry because I don't understand why it has to happen to someone you love. After that it became fear because I wanted to know and have questions answered."
Although she said the questions cannot be answered, she did know someone that could at least help her with the process. But the problem was she was nervous about asking Cullen.
"At first I didn't want to say anything because I didn't want to bring up something like this to her again knowing that she had lost her father," Dolcetti said. "But we made it clear to each other that it's kind of an unwritten rule that as a teammate you are going to be there for each other. I know that she's there for me and I'll be there for her whenever she needs me."
They both know they have each other to speak on the matter. They also agreed that Bulldogs head coach Amy Edwards, her staff and advisors have been very supportive and flexible with taking time off and permitting them to travel home frequently to be with their families.
Dolcetti's season was cut short this season when she suffered a knee injury in the season opener against the University of Utah. Although she will be sidelined the remainder of the season, the forward said she believes her father has been more supportive of her to recover quickly and get back on the field instead of showing concern for him.
"I think we lean on each other just to make things easy for ourselves," she said. "He just wishes I could play soccer and I wish he could watch me play."
With one month of the regular season remaining, Cullen has been planning for the future. She has started applying for graduate schools near home but if her plan does not work, she said would like to take a year off and persuade her sister into doing some traveling.
In the meantime, Cullen will remain focused on school and the soccer season. But she said she has been making donations to help support cancer awareness including a bike tour some of her friends held in Sidney. She has also signed up for Colleges Versus Cancer which was established to unite students, faculty and university staff in the fight against cancer. Generally, CAC is the organization that runs the Relay For Life event on college campuses.
"We've been affected but we know that there are so many people that have been affected, so it's not about us. I'm glad that we are able to support everyone who has been affected," Cullen said.
