Jon Kuiperij Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Sports C R O S S C O U N T R Y 27 | Friday, October 4, 2013 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com "Connected to your Community" Oakville native has good reason to cheer for A's in MLB playoffs by Jon Kuiperij Beaver Sports Editor École Forest Trail student Sydney Foulon makes her way through Burlington's Sherwood Forest Park Wednesday during the Halton District School Board's Amos elementary cross-country meet. The Amos competition was one of six meets the HDSB is holding this fall. More photos from the event can be viewed online at bit.ly/1dYbIRD. Results from the cross-country meets will appear in an upcoming edition of the Beaver. | photo by Riziero Vertolli -- Oakville Beaver -- @Halton_Photog Ridge's annual pink football game Wednesday by Jon Kuiperij Beaver Sports Editor Three years later, Samantha Cussen still vividly remembers one of her earliest impressions of Iroquois Ridge High School. "In Grade 9, I remember walking through the doors and seeing pink lights and having a pink ribbon attached to my backpack," said Cussen, now in Grade 12. "I was looking around and thinking, `Wow, this is a great school. I'm really happy to be here.'" Iroquois Ridge's school colours might be blue and green, but one could argue pink is the hue the school is most associated with. Wednesday, Ridge will host its ninth annual Partners In Pink football game in support of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. Festivities will begin with a pep rally at 10:45 a.m., followed by a senior football contest at noon between the Trailblazers and visiting St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders. Players will wear pink socks and tape in the contest. Students can `buy' their way out of class to attend the game by donating $2 and a canned good. All food collected will be donated to Oakville Fareshare Food Bank. Organizers expect more than 1,000 students, faculty, parents and friends will attend the game, and hope to exceed the $3,000 they raised for the cancer foundation through last year's event. "This means a lot to a lot of us. Breast cancer is one of the biggest hits for cancer. It affects so many people," said Grade 12 student Melissa Buckley, who serves on the event's executive council, along with Cussen and five others. "If we can raise a little bit of funds, it is great in the grand scheme of things, but our awareness (is also important)." The Partners in Pink football game was started in 2005 by business teacher Lynda Anstett, after Ridge football player Kumail Sayeed lost his mother to breast cancer. The Ridge initiative came before Canadian Football League and National Football League teams began holding pink games each October as part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Other schools in Halton now also hold pink games of their own, including Aquinas, which annually hosts the Ridge field hockey team. "It's really incredible seeing that we actually started it and it branched off to other schools in our community," said Cussen. Prior to the senior football game, cancer survivors will do a victory lap around the field. One of those survivors will be the 80-year-old grandmother of Ridge coach Kris Reeve. "That's how I got on board with this," said Reeve. "It's touched me personally. It's a meaningful event to a lot of us, for sure." The senior football contest won't be Wednesday's only game at Ridge in which players will be donning pink. The Trailblazers and Raiders junior teams will also wear pink for their 2 p.m. clash, and Ridge will host Craig Kielburger in senior and girls' basketball action, beginning at 3:30 p.m. Raffle tickets, barbecued food, pink clothing and pink cupcakes will be sold throughout the day. Sports Obsession Burlington has donated a Robert Griffin III Washington Redskins jersey as a raffle prize, and the Toronto Argonauts have donated tickets to an upcoming game. When the Oakland Athletics take the field tonight (Friday) for their first game of the Major League Baseball playoffs, one Oakville native in particular will be a very interested spectator. Queen Elizabeth Park High School grad Matt Higginson is an amateur scout for the A's, responsible for unearthing and assessing young baseball talent in eastern Canada, western New York and western Pennsylvania. None of Higginson's discoveries will be on the field against the Detroit Tigers in Game 1 of the American League Division Series. The 30-year-old Higginson is going into his sixth year with the A's, and it often takes that long -- or longer -- for draft picks to develop into major leaguers. But he did help contribute to Oakland's postseason appearance last year, when the A's used Canisius College product Sean Jamieson -- drafted on Higginson's recommenda- Matt Higginson tion -- as a bargaining chip to acquire shortstop Stephen Drew from the Arizona Diamondbacks before the trade deadline. "Working for them is just a tremendous privilege," Higginson said of the A's, whose scouting staff is widely credited as a major reason why the small-market club is making its second straight trip to the playoffs. "I think they're the best organization in baseball." A former member of the Oakville A's rep system, the highest level Higginson reached as a ballplayer was NCAA Division 1, where he was a third baseman for Gardner-Webb University. Higginson didn't have the offensive capabilities to advance further, but he was intrigued by the progression of his former teammates and opponents. "I always really enjoyed watching and thinking why certain players make it and certain players don't," Higginson said. "I was always really fascinated with that, the journey to the majors and how difficult it is, how unpredictable." Having collegiate experience lent Higginson some credibility as a talent evaluator, but he gained much more through a strong showing at the Major League Baseball Scouting Bureau's annual scout school in see Statistics on p.28