Football | 7/14/2015 5:11:00 PM |
'Cuse Football Invites Orange Nation to 'Lift For Life'
The effort devoted to improving as an athlete often happens behind the scenes. How do Syracuse student-athletes train when nobody is watching?
'Cuse Nation is invited to find out and to help raise awareness and funds for an important cause at the same time at the Syracuse Chapter of Uplifting Athletes annual Lift For Life event on Saturday, July 25 at Coyne Stadium at the Lampe Athletics Complex.
Lift For Life is the signature fundraising event for the Uplifting Athletes nationwide network of 25 college football student-athlete led chapters. The Syracuse Chapter will continue its mission of raising awareness and research dollars in support of anaplastic astrocytoma, the chosen rare disease of the Syracuse Chapter, by holding its third annual Lift For Life on Saturday, July 25 at 1 p.m. Gates open at 12:30 p.m. and parking is free in the Manley South lot.
Founded in 2013, the Syracuse Chapter chose the rare disease anaplastic astrocytoma in honor of former teammate and Orange punter Rob Long, a four-year starter, who is winning his battle with the rare disease. Long was diagnosed with the disease in November 2010, which prematurely ended his Syracuse career just before the Orange faced Kansas State in the 2010 New Era Pinstripe Bowl. Today, Long is celebrating his fourth year of being cancer-free. He has achieved success in large part due to cutting-edge research and advanced medical interventions. The Lift For Life, the Orange football student-athletes hope to continue to contribute to these medical technologies, and create more success stories like Long's.
"We are excited to invite the community to our first public Lift for Life," said Syracuse Chapter Leader and junior center
Jason Emerich. "Rob's story and his perseverance through such a tough time has motivated us, as a team, to help raise awareness and research dollars for anaplastic astrocytoma. Rob has been an inspiration to the team, and we want to give back to the community and help patients with anaplastic astrocytoma."
The Lift for Life will include small teams of 8 to 10 Orange football student-athletes competing in relay races featuring bag jumps, prowler pushes, and tire flips, in addition to the traditional bench press, cone drills and agility races. The event will culminate with a tug-of-war competition. Following the event, fans are invited to interact with the student-athletes on the field to take selfies and get autographs.
Another aspect to the competition is fundraising. At the event, fans are invited to select one of the teams of football student-athletes in the competition and back that team with their donations. The team that raises the most funds will be awarded points in the competition. All proceeds go towards anaplastic astrocytoma research.
In order to support the Syracuse Chapter and help the Orange reach their $15,000 Lift For Life goal, visit the Syracuse Chapter fundraising site (
click here).
