The true essence of sports is when the games mean more than simply what happens on the court. The Iona College men’s and women’s basketball teams made their games from Feb. 12 to Feb. 16 mean more than basketball contests. These four games (two men’s basketball and two women’s basketball) were part of “Awareness Week.”

On Feb. 12, the men’s basketball team supported the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and Coaches Cure CF Foundation in its game against Saint Peter’s. Two days later, both Iona squads took on Monmouth and supported the fight against cancer. The women aligned with Play 4Kay initiative and the Kay Yow Cancer Fund to strike out breast cancer, while the men supported the Prostate Cancer Foundation. The women also played for the fight against breast cancer on Feb. 16, when they took on Rider.

“We talk about a lot of things bigger than basketball and bigger than school and those events are bigger than that,” men’s basketball head coach Tim Cluess said. “When we talked to our kids about it, they’ve been great in understanding that it is bigger than them, and I’m really proud of our team for responding the way that they do and taking it a step further.”

To show support for the fight against cystic fibrosis, the men’s basketball coaching staff wore sweat suits. The theme of the women’s games was pink. The coaches and players all dressed in pink. The men’s staff showed their support for prostate cancer by donning blue bow ties for their game against Monmouth.

Cystic fibrosis is a disease in which one’s body creates excessively thick mucus, which can clog lungs and inhibit the pancreas from working properly. This inherited disease affects roughly 30,000 Americans and 70,000 globally.

This disease has a special connection to the Iona athletics department. The Judges, a family of alumni including John, Monica, Chris and Jay, have a nephew with cystic fibrosis and have been instrumental in aligning Iona with fighting this disease.

Breast cancer was brought to national prominence by the battle that former North Carolina State women’s basketball head coach Kay Yow endured. She battled the disease for more than 20 years.

The Play 4Kay initiative began in 2007 and has raised millions of dollars for the disease that strikes about one in eight American women.

Prostate cancer is the form of cancer that is most likely to strike a non-smoking man. It strikes one out of every six males in the United States. A man is 35 percent more likely to get prostate cancer than a woman is to get breast cancer.

Over 2.5 million American men have this disease. A new case of prostate cancer arises about every two minutes, and this disease kills a man on average every 16 minutes.

Cluess has a personal connection to this deadly disease having lost his father to it.

Saint Peter’s, Monmouth and Rider also supported the causes and took part in these initiatives.

The Gaels went 4-0 during this stretch but view victories in striking out these diseases as much more important.

“I think it’s a huge thing for us to give back and help society,” Cluess said.

“A lot of people out there are struggling with different illnesses, and anything we can do to help bring awareness to any of those illnesses and help people make donations and hopefully beat those diseases some day is something that we all should do and it’s great to be a part of here at Iona.”