For those who may not have noticed, athletes from the high school to pro ranks have been wearing a lot of pink this month. From the uniforms of the Mid-American Christian University volleyball team to the cleats of the Cincinnati Bengals’ Chad OchoCinco, men and women have been sporting the color to support National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Athletes wearing pink during October has become a tradition the last couple of years as deaths attributed to the disease have risen. Yet some times athletes don’t really pay attention to why they are doing it and over-look the importance of what it means.

But for one high school football player that will never happen. Westmoore’s Stanley West has seen the devastation of breast cancer first hand and knows the tolls it can have on a person, a family and a community.

Sept. 30, the day before National Breast Cancer Awareness Month began, West’s mother Janice West died after a long battle with cancer.

“It was everywhere,” West said. “By the time she was going away, it was everywhere. It started out as breast cancer and just spread everywhere.”

After his mother’s death, West was away from the football field and his team for almost two weeks. But they never forgot about him and what he and his family were going through.

“We all feel for Stanley and his family,” Westmoore coach Chad Davis said. “They are in our thoughts and prayers all the time. And when it happened, we handled it as a football team. We went to the funeral as a team and as a staff. We were there for him and his family.”

Before her death, West could see the pain his mother dealt with everyday as she endured the cancer that had made its way throughout her body. She was never far from his mind, he said.

“I am very excited to get back on the field,” West said. “I definitely feel like it’s a burden that’s kind of been lifted. I don’t think about it as much as I used to. I used to think about it a lot when I played when she was really sick. I think now I might feel a little more free. I am just excited to get back and maybe not think about it as much and maybe be more focused.”

But for West and his brother James, it will not be the same without their mother around.

“That’s going to be really tough,” West said. “Because this is the first year she hasn’t been at all the games. She has been the one there to record everything. Tell me what she has liked about games and stuff like that. So it’s really big and it’s really tough. I think just knowing she is in a better place is going to make it all better for me and make me feel like it’s not a total failure.”

West returned to his extended family Monday for his first practice since his mother’s death. He is ready to resume his final year of school and football.

West is prepared for how his life will change.

“It’s been a real life changer,” West said. “I am starting a complete new phase of my life, which is predominantly why I chose not to be here. The way I live my life is a lot different now as far as what I do when I leave football and things. It’s just a big difference in my home life, and it will carry over into a lot of different phases.”

While West was with his family, his Jaguars earned their third win of the season when they defeated Putnam City West. But more importantly, several of the players were decked out in pink. They included Brian Self and Anthony Porter and Michael Glover.