LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The Donate Life Basketball Clinic is returning to Saint Xavier High School for another year of rivalry and celebrating the importance organ donation.
The third annual tournament will be held on Dec. 9. High schools from all over the Louisville area will be competing for a bigger reason than just a trophy.
This year, two coaches participating in the tournament are very close to the cause, as they both are personally impacted by organ donation.
Katherine Klein, daughter of Saint Xavier head basketball coach Kevin Klein, received a liver from her mother at just six months old. The Donate Life Basketball Clinic serves as an anniversary of her transplant surgery, making it a very special day to all involved.
"During those early days while we were waiting for her lifesaving liver transplant, basketball was the one thing I could come back to – to bring some "normal" to my day,” Coach Klein said in a news release on Tuesday. “Now, celebrating Katherine's second chance at life and promoting organ donation through our basketball classic allows my family and I to celebrate both at once.”
Stuart Jackson, son of Southern High School assistant junior varsity basketball coach Stanley Jackson, is currently undergoing dialysis three days a week while he waits for a kidney transplant. Jackson helps his dad coach the team.
“I can’t imagine if my son or daughter was waiting on a lifesaving transplant, and yet here are two wonderful coaches who have both walked this journey,” Shelley Snyder, Executive Director of Donate Life Kentucky, said in a news release on Tuesday. “For three consecutive years, this event has proven to be an exceptional platform for educating the public about the Donate Life mission. This year, it hits particularly close to the hearts of local families on the waiting list.”
In 2023 so far, more than 250 organ donors have saved a life. Even though that number may seem large, there is still over 1,000 people in Kentucky on the waiting list. The Donate Life Basketball Classic stands to make a lasting difference in the stories they can tell.
The schedule for the Donate Life Basketball Classic on Saturday, December 9, is included below:
- 1 p.m. Saint Xavier High School (junior varsity) vs. Highlands High School (junior varsity)
- 2:15 p.m. Saint Xavier High School (varsity) vs. Highlands High School (varsity)
- 3:45 p.m. Eastern High School (varsity) vs. Tates Creek High School (varsity)
- 5:30 p.m. Western High School (varsity) vs. South Oldham High School (varsity)
- 7 p.m. Southern High School (varsity) vs. Doss High School (varsity)
Tickets to the tournament can be purchased here.
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