How Hillcrest softball raises money and awareness for breast cancer at the Gena Frith Classic

Hillcrest softball is about more than just winning games. It is about giving back to its community.

For the last 20 years, Hillcrest has hosted the Gena Frith Classic, previously known as the Patriot Classic. Four years into its inception, the Patriot Classic began as a tournament to raise money and awareness for breast cancer, then recently the tournament took on a new name: the Gena Frith Classic, named after now-retired Hillcrest bookkeeper Gena Frith, who faced her own personal battles with breast cancer.

The Gena Frith Classic hosts teams from all over Alabama, with games being played at Bowers Park in Tuscaloosa. In the 2024 classic, Hillcrest saw 45 teams come out to raise money for local breast cancer awareness. Out of those 45 teams, many hailed from the Tuscaloosa area, including Hillcrest as the host, along with Northridge, Northside, Tuscaloosa County and Brookwood.

Over its 16-year span raising money for breast cancer, the tournament has raised $121,000, with most recently raising more than $4,000 at the 2024 tournament. All money raised goes towards the DCH Foundation.

"The DCH foundation, who we donate to, they are set up to help people who really can't help themselves, who might not have insurance in west Alabama or something like that," tournament director Rob McGee said. "That is what we give the money for. To be able to help people that can't really help themselves. And not people that we know, but people that we may never see."

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The tournament also allows players to honor those in their lives affected by breast cancer as honorees in the tournament. For Hillcrest catcher Marti McCluskey, a junior on the team, it allowed her to honor a close family friend — Jenifer Dees.

"Jenifer Dees is the wonderful lady I got to walk out (with)," McCluskey said. "We have gone to the same church together for a while and our families are very close. It meant a lot to me being able to walk her out. The meaning of the tournament and what we raise money for really hit me harder since breast cancer affected someone really dear to my heart."

The McCluskey and Dees families have been friends for eight years, ever since the Dees moved to Tuscaloosa, with Dees saying the McCluskey family was the first family they met when they moved to town. Dees' life took a turn in December 2022, when she was diagnosed with invasive lobular carcinoma, a type of breast cancer that can often times go undetected in its early stages.

Seeing such a close family friend affected by breast cancer, McCluskey originally asked Dees to be her honoree at the 2023 Gena Frith Classic. However, with the rawness of her diagnosis and being fresh off a double mastectomy surgery, Dees declined the offer. When it came time for the 2024 Gena Frith Classic, though, Dees knew this time around, she would have a different answer if McCluskey asked her to be her honoree again.

"Before she asked again, I had already resigned to myself that if she asked I would do it," Dees said.

Sure enough, McCluskey asked again, and this time, Dees obliged. Over the weekend of Feb. 24, Dees walked hand-in-hand with McCluskey in her pink shirt and socks, as her honoree at the 2024 Gena Frith classic. Dees is still very much in her fight with the cancer, undergoing hormone therapy treatment, but getting to walk out as an honoree with McCluskey, she said, was special. So special, in fact, Dees said she was not sure she would have done it with anybody else.

"I am on the other side of that, and I need women to see that you can survive this and that early detection is important," Dees said. "Do I have problems; do I have complications from the cancer? 100%. But I'm alive, and I get to enjoy a long life because of the early detection. There's a love-hate relationship with the pink ribbon, but it does represent so many women who have survived, and it also represents moms, sisters and grandmas that didn't."

Anna Snyder covers high school sports and University of Alabama softball and football recruiting for The Tuscaloosa News. Reach her at asnyder@gannett.com. Follow her on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, @annaesnyder2

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: How Hillcrest softball raises money, awareness for breast cancer