The Southeast men’s basketball team added one more exhibition game onto its schedule to help out with hurricane relief.
The Redhawks will take on Missouri Southern at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 4, at the Show Me Center with all proceeds going to the American Red Cross.
Head coach Rick Ray said he wanted to help out the hurricane victims.
“We wanted to make sure that we did two things,” Ray said. “One, is anyway we can help out the hurricane victims. My sister actually lives in Houston and everybody has family in that area that has been affected. It’s one of the biggest disasters in the history of the United States, so anything we can do to help out that cause, we want to make sure that we get an opportunity for people to donate to that.”
Junior guard Jonathan Dalton grew up in New Orleans, so he knows how important this game is to help support hurricane relief.
“I definitely understand with Katrina,” Dalton said. “I definitely can feel their pain.”
Ray also said it gives the team another chance to play an extra game to help out with the young, inexperienced team.
“We got a lot of guys where this is going to be their first time playing a game in front of fans,” Ray said. “So, we want to make sure that our guys can get opportunities to kind of get all of the jitters and all of the hiccups out of their system before we play the game that counts on Nov. 10.”
Ray said part of the coaches’ jobs is to develop their team not just on the court, but also off the court.
“We want to make sure these guys have a sense of community and a sense of helping out,” Ray said. “If we don’t start to show them that in college, then what are they going to do once they get out into the real world? So anytime we have a chance to donate our time, donate our efforts, show guys how to do the right thing off the court, we want to make sure we provide an example for that.”
On Oct. 22, the University of Missouri-Columbia played the University of Kansas in Kansas City, Missouri, to help raise money as well for the hurricane victims. Ray said that game helped put Southeast’s game together.
“I’m really good friends with the staff over there at [University of] Missouri, I worked with [head coach] Cuonzo Martin. I also worked with Chris Hollender,” Ray said. “So those guys told me about that and what they were doing when they played and they were doing it for hurricane relief.”
Ray said the NCAA allowed Division-I basketball teams to play an extra exhibition game as long as the game helped with charity relief.
“We were trying to find another team in our area. We were trying to get another Division-I team, we were trying to do it with Memphis, but a lot of things feel through,” Ray said.
Ray said this game gives fans an opportunity to help out with hurricane relief that may not know how to help.
“This gives them an avenue to help, so we can hope that even though they don’t particularly want to come out and see the game, they can come out and watch the game to support the hurricane relief fund,” Ray said.
