LAFAYETTE – Lafayette Jeff senior girls tennis player Elise Medrano wore a bright green t-shirt and ran baseline to baseline, cracking forehands and backhands on Tuesday afternoon.
The t-shirt carried the emblem of Smash Cancer, an annual match that entered its 11th year, played between Lafayette Jeff and Harrison. T-shirts like the one worn by Medrano are sold for $10, with the money being donated to a former or current student who is undergoing cancer.
Medrano set a Smash Cancer record of 135 t-shirts sold, according to her coach Dawn Patterson, in support of this year’s recipient Karen King, a Lafayette Jeff graduate who is fighting breast cancer.
Lafayette Jeff as a team sold 467 t-shirts, a figure Patterson says is the most sold in 11 years and were able to donate $3,000 to help King with medical expenses.
“I enjoy selling t-shirts because it’s like a competition for a team, and it feels good to sell the most t-shirts, but it’s also supporting a good cause,” Medrano said. “I think it’s important to recognize cancer is all around us. It’s affecting the people we love, and we should be in support of that cause.”
Medrano was inspired by the cancer battle being fought by her grandfather Scott Snyder, who has been fighting lymph node cancer.
“It’s been really hard on my family because he’s been in and out of the hospital for a couple of years,” Medrano said. “And it’s been a little scary for us because we’re not sure if he’s going to make it sometimes. But he’s been pulling through with the treatments.”
The honorees for Smash Tennis vary from year to year and were used to assist the leukemia battle of 2022 graduate Charlie Smart.
Patterson became inspired to start Smash Cancer in Lafayette after seeing the program conducted by Indianapolis-based high school programs.
“I wanted my team to do something in the community and thought it would be a good community project for the girls to do and kind of do something more than fundraising,” Patterson said. “I wanted them to do something for someone in the community to look beyond themselves.”
Medrano will finish her senior year and then head to Ball State to study nursing.
The experience with Smash Tennis has inspired Medrano to pursue a career caring for others going through the same fight as her grandfather.
“I’m very interested in health care, and I think it’s very important that we get more people in the field,” Medrano said.
Ethan Hanson is the sports reporter for the Journal & Courier in Lafayette. He can be reached at ehanson@jconline.com, on Twitter at EthanAHanson and Instagram at ethan_a_hanson.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Lafayette Jeff senior Elise Medrano tennis t-shirt aids Karen Kings