-Adalee Hobson, SHS Student Media staff
The volleyball court was covered in pink, but the message behind it went far beyond the color. Salem High School Head Volleyball Coach Renee Stidam was diagnosed with breast cancer in early 2026. The team chose to support their coach by wearing pink, the color that represents breast cancer awareness. 
Junior Varsity Coach Lexi Mead said this gesture was about a team giving back to their fierceful leader.
“If I have learned anything from this moment, it is that you can be hard on your players and want big things from them, and they will still show up for you if you show up for them,” Mead said, describing Stidam as charismatic, optimistic and determined.
Senior Chloe Day said Stidam is the best coach in the world.
“It was special seeing someone I love feel special and seen,” Day said, about the game where Stidam saw the pink warm ups for the first time.
Bailey Smith, also a senior, said she wants their coach to know that they love her and will always be there to support her. She said she sees how hard her coach has fought and how dedicated she is to the team.
“I hope she feels super supported and we want her to know we see her and how hard she's fought,” Smith said.
Coach Stidam said seeing the love and support from her girls makes her feel like a goal has been achieved.
“I may have been sitting in a lawn chair or on the bleachers at practice, but I never wanted them to think I put cancer above them,” Stidam said.
She described seeing those warmups as nothing more than love. For every game the Lady Lions run out in their warm-ups, Stidam sees the awareness that she won and was loved along the way.
“I hope all the survivors we see all season will be thankful for their win, too,” she said.
Stidam wants other cancer survivors to know they have always had someone to lean on and a support system to run to.
“We live in a world of kind and giving people,” she said. “Let them help you in every way they can.”
Before the game, the Lady Lions had thought they were putting on pink for breast cancer awareness; but as they stood together on the court, they understood that the pink represented something more: strength in the face of fear, hope during difficult moments and the courage their coach showed through her battle of breast cancer.
Stidam never let her diagnosis define her, and she continues to show up for her players with the same kindness and determination that she always has. Now, they want her to know that her strength became their strength, too. They stand together not just as a team, but as people who care deeply about someone who inspires them on and off the court.
They wore pink for awareness, but more importantly, they wore it for the woman that showed them courage, strength and what determination truly looked like.