By: Mark Wasik
Griffin's Game Tickets | Make a Donation | Buy T-Shirts
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KENNESAW, Ga. – Kennesaw State volleyball will open its home schedule with the Kennesaw State Invitational on Sept. 8-10, and that will also be the setting for one of the most anticipated games on the Owls' home slate as this year's Griffin's Game will be held on Saturday, Sept. 9 at 6 pm against Mississippi State in the Convocation Center.
The Owls will also play Wake Forest (September 8) and Western Michigan (September 10) during the three-day invitational.
Griffin's Game, now in its eighth year, is named in honor of head coach Keith Schunzel and his wife Briana's son, Griffin, who was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. The KSU volleyball team each preseason selects a family to honor and support in order to help with their expenses in their fight against childhood cancer, and over the past seven years have raised over $100,000 total for the previous families.
For the 2023 Griffin's Game, the Owls will honor Matthew Hart, from Acworth, Ga.
Help us support Matthew and his family by marking your calendars for this year's Griffin's Game. Tickets for the contest are $10, with all the proceeds going towards Matthew's family, and can be purchased
HERE. Fans also have the opportunity to make a donation to the fundraiser, as well as donating and/or purchasing an official T-shirt from the game on the KSU donation page
HERE.
The Schunzels received an overwhelming amount of support when Griffin was diagnosed in March of 2015 and they, along with the volleyball program and the KSU athletic department, want to be able to give that same level of support to a local family dealing with a similar struggle.
"Having Matthew and his family for Griffin's Game this year is an absolute honor for us," said Schunzel. "This incredible little guy and his entire family have been through unimaginable hardships in the last 10 years as he's fought this horrible disease. But their positivity and hope through it all shines almost indescribably bright and is something that all of us can take a lesson from. We are thrilled to support them and shower them with our love, hope and support for this special night."
Matthew Hart is just 11 years old but is in his 10th year fighting a high grade brainstem glioma, an aggressive brain cancer with less than a six-month life expectancy. His cancer is so rare that his doctors know of no other families with the same diagnosis. After spending an entire year and a half in hospice, Matthew became the first cancer child in Georgia's history to graduate from hospice. After a near death biopsy, and 31 radiation treatments, in 2015 Matthew began a cutting edge, oral chemo that they hoped might buy him two years, and to everyone's great surprise it's brought him so many more years. However, Matthew's cancer is so aggressive and in such a tight and vital part of the brain that he needs continuous treatment to keep it from overtaking him, which includes taking chemo twice daily for the past eight years.
"These difficulties are small in comparison to the joy we experience in our lives," said Dawn Hart, Mathew's mother. "We have so much to be thankful for. Matthew is silly and sweet and loves any way that he can be independent! Our hope is that Matthew's story will stir in others, a call to action. Local families, especially those many years into their journey, would be so blessed by being remembered."
Matthew's journey can be followed at
www.caringbridge.org/visit/ourlittlematthew
