Pink Up game hits close to home for Southeast Missouri State football team

The Southeast Missouri State football team will be raising awareness for breast cancer when it takes on Ohio Valley Conference opponent Tennessee Tech on Saturday in a Pink Up game at Houck Stadium, and one Redhawk will specifically be playing with his mother in mind.

Junior Zach Cox is a fullback for Southeast, and two years ago, his mother, Pam, was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Cox find out about his mother's diagnoses when he came home for winter break following finals week.

"After January, I had to come back here and practice, and it was always on my mind." Cox said. "'Is she going to be all right?' Because during that winter month, I was the one that was taking care of her."

Cox's father and sister both were both occupied by jobs while he had time off before coming back to Southeast for the spring semester.

Coach Tom Matukewicz had been hired when Cox find out that his mother had breast cancer, and he was the first person Cox went to on the team.

"I told him, 'My mom is dealing with cancer right now. I'm going to have to leave sometimes on the weekends,'" Cox said. "And he said, 'Whatever you need to do, do it. I know she's an important person in your life.' He was fully supportive, everybody else was really supportive of me."

Matukewicz recalled the time when Cox first came to him about his mother, and Cox asked Matukewicz what the team was doing in last year's bye week.

"I was like, 'Well, what do you mean?' and he said, 'Well, my sister wants to move her wedding because my mom was just diagnosed with breast cancer, and we're afraid she won't see the wedding,'" Matukewicz said. "When you hear something like that, it all the sudden takes you back a minute, and Pam's a survivor. She's fought through it and will be at the game on Saturday."

Cox's mother has been cancer-free for a year and half now will be on the field with the team prior to kickoff for the coin toss.

Every Redhawk will be wearing pink with each player's uniform consisting of special pink jerseys and white pants with a pink stripe and pink helmet decals.

"They are as pink as they get," Matukewicz said. "When we first got the pants, they were all pink, and we were like, 'No.' So now we've got white pants with a pink stripe to put it all together, but it's going to be a cool thing. Hopefully it means more than just wearing pink -- it's like a moment in these guy's life and make a difference."

The team will have a guest speaker who is a breast cancer survivor that will talk in the locker room before the game begins.

Players' jerseys will be personalized with the name of a survivor or loved one and will get to meet that person after the game.

The jerseys were auctioned off and more than $16,000 was raised to provide free mammograms for women who can't afford them.

Coming off the bye

Southeast is coming off its bye week after a 27-10 homecoming loss to OVC opponent Eastern Kentucky, which is 4-0 in conference play, in a game where it went scoreless in the second half.

The team is focused on its four cornerstones this week, according to senior wide receiver Paul McRoberts.

"Attitude, effort, discipline and passion," McRoberts said. "We've lacked the focus, and we've lacked the discipline. So the bye week was all, 'Take the week off, get football off your mind, and then come back ready to hit it so we can have a great Saturday.'"

In the first half against Eastern Kentucky, McRoberts caught 10 passes for 93 yards and a touchdown, which tied him for Southeast's all-time touchdown reception record with current wide receivers coach Willie Ponder at 26.

McRoberts thought he was going to break the record in that game, but didn't have a catch for the remainder of the game as he was only targeted two times in the second half.

The Redhawks are 2-5 overall and have an OVC record of 1-2, landing them fifth in the conference.

Matukewicz's message for the team during the bye week was to focus on themselves.

"'Let's focus on us, and let's get some of our upperclassmen, the guys that have been playing a lot of time, let's get them some rest and really focus on our younger class,'" Matukewicz said.

Matukewicz had the team focus on turnovers and discipline this week since he believes the team has yet to put together a full game.

"Today was a really good day," Matukewicz said. "A lot of energy, a lot of good attitude and effort, so that's a good sign. Not a lot of balls on the ground after having an off week, and so it feels like another week, which is a good thing coming off a bye."