2017 marks the 5th Annual Coaches Gala. Held at the Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, festivities began at 6pm with a fun filled evening that included a silent and live auction, an amazing dinner, and fabulous live entertainment!

Though the BasketBALL is one of the area’s premier gala events the year, it’s mission is quite simple – Raise money to fight cancer.

Six-plus months of work by high school stu­dents, coaches and spon­sors cul­mi­nated in a record per­for­mance, with the Lack­awanna League and Wy­oming Val­ley Con­fer­ence ini­tia­tive rais­ing close to $300,000, ac­cord­ing to Scran­ton Prep boys bas­ket­ball coach An­drew Ket­tel, who is chair­man of the lo­cal Coaches vs. Cancer drive.

“Is it sur­pris­ing? At times it does sur­prise me and there are other times that it doesn’t,” Ket­tel said. “I know the peo­ple who live here in north­east­ern Penn­syl­va­nia.

“When peo­ple are down and out, we rise up and are there for each other. That’s why it’s not sur­pris­ing how well we do lo­cally. Just see where we were nine years ago.”

That first year, when Ket­tel was coach­ing at Lack­awanna Trail, the fa­ther of player Casey Cathrall was di­ag­nosed with pan­cre­atic can­cer. It was the be­gin­ning of Coaches vs. Cancer lo­cally, and in a few weeks, raised $1,200.

On Satur­day, the to­tal raised for the Amer­i­can Cancer So­ci­ety reached $1.5 mil­lion.

“It’s amaz­ing, from where we started nine years ago to where we are now,” Ket­tel said.

Patti Lynett, wife of Ge­orge V. Lynett, Times-Tri­bune pub­lisher emer­i­tus and a breast can­cer sur­vivor, was hon­ored at the Bas­ketBall.

Every year, one per­son who has bat­tled can­cer is se­lected for recog­ni­tion at the gala.

“We wanted to honor her for the strength and dig­nity she has shown through­out her bat­tle,” Ket­tel said.

To learn more about the American Cancer Society and Coaches vs Cancer click here.

Follow American Cancer Society Coaches vs. Cancer of NEPA on Facebook here.

To donate to Coaches vs Cancer, click the link below.