PEARLAND — The Pearland Lady Oilers recently hosted the annual "Jennifer Haynie Strike Out Cancer" Softball Tournament in honor of former Lady Oiler Jennifer Haynie and others who were presently fighting cancer or those who were cancer survivors.

Haynie graduated from PHS in 2007 and was accepted and scheduled to attend Texas A&M University to study Business and Marketing.

She was a Junior and Senior Class Officer and Chairman of the Senior Prom Committee for 2007. Jennifer especially enjoyed helping produce the Oilervision Broadcast Program at Pearland High School. She was a volunteer at Memorial Hermann Hospital and assisted with numerous fundraisers for community organizations. She regularly attended New Hope Church.

The night she threw out the first pitch in 2008, she flashed that winsome smile that everyone had come to recognize as her trademark in life.

In March of 2008, PHS Softball hosted the first-ever Strike Out Cancer night. Jennifer was the guest of honor and threw out the first pitch. Just two short months later, on May 18, 2008, Jennifer lost her courageous year-long battle with cancer. Upon her death, the Lady Oilers decided to name their annual tournament in her memory, and use it to raise money to help other softball families dealing with cancer, or to support the search for a cure for Osteosarcoma through the newly formed Haynie Spirit Bone Cancer Foundation (www.hayniespirit.org).

This year, the tournament recognized Marty Ross and his family as their honored guests at the 2018 Haynie Spirit tournament. Ross is a former Pearland High School teacher and baseball coach. He is also the former President of the Houston Area Baseball Coaches Association. He has been married to his wife Brenda for 21 years and has three kids Randy (17), Kyle (15) and Amy (14).

In December, Marty was diagnosed with stage-four pancreatic cancer and it is the hope that the funds raised from the tournament will help the family with the cost of treatment. Ross was presented with a check for $3,500 in support of his family during this time. Your prayers would be greatly appreciated for this great husband, father, teacher, and coach.