Friday’s volleyball match against Reedy is more than just another District 9-5A match as it’s being dedicated to raising money for the daughter of basketball coach Ben Manning, who was born last spring with a life threatening congenital heart defect. 

“We want to support coach Manning and his wife, who was a middle school coach at Vandeventer for a long time,” head volleyball coach Ui Womble said. “We really just want to support them as a school, and help offset some of the cost of their medical bills, and daily expenses of being at the hospital.” 

The Manning family has received an outpouring of support, and to honor Harper, the team and attendees will be sporting rainbows and unicorns, along with the program donating proceeds from the game to the family. 

“It’s wonderful,” Manning said. “It’s overwhelming the empathy they’ve shown to Harper and my family so we are just so thankful that they are putting this on for us. We’ll be there at the game tonight cheering them on.”

The volleyball team hopes to add to its 10 game district winning streak, and ultimately bring awareness and support to the Mannings and their daughter Harper. 

“I really want this to let them know that we love them, and are there supporting them, and trying to help out,” Womble said. “The amount of stress they are under caring for a sick kid is immense, so anything we can do to help, we want to do that.”