Spike For Her logo: script lettering over a Spikeball net Get in the circle

Established in Ocean City, New Jersey

In 2018, I was twelve years old when my mom was diagnosed with stage 3 triple-negative breast cancer.

I shaved her head myself.

Zeke at age twelve with his mom, her head newly shaved, and his dad flexing behind them, all smiling for the camera
2018. The night we shaved it together.

Tears ran down both our faces, and I put on a fake smile to look brave for her. No twelve-year-old should have to fake that smile. No mom should have to see it.

My grade school principal told me her diagnosis was not my excuse to cry.

So I stopped crying and made a promise instead: nobody standing where I stood should ever feel that alone.

Three years later, in 2021, I made a flyer for a Spikeball tournament on our beach and posted it to my Instagram.

Then the whole town showed up.

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What this is

One flyer became a movement

Spike For Her is an all-day, 128-team Spikeball tournament on the beach in Ocean City, New Jersey. Every dollar it raises funds patient support through Unite for HER, a partner of The February Foundation. It has sold out every single year it has run.

0teams. Sold out every year
$0raised for Unite for HER
0years old when Zeke founded it, 2021
0weeks from first flyer to first tournament
Players standing in a line on the sand with hands over their hearts during the national anthem
Hands on hearts. The anthem before first serve.
A huge crowd of players and spectators gathered on the Ocean City beach for Spike For Her, an American flag flying above them
Every one of them showed up for her.
Players dumping an orange cooler of ice water over a winning teammate
The cooler always finds the winners.
Erin Pellegrin of Unite for HER in a pink Spike For Her jersey speaking on the microphone, surrounded by players
Between games, the mic goes to the reason.

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Scenes from the day

08:52 AM · the register line forms
10:15 AM · the DJ never stops
01:40 PM · bracket play gets loud
A pack of players roaring on the sand mid-rally
03:05 PM · match point, court 12
05:30 PM · the whole circle, one frame
06:10 PM · champions get the cooler

Why we play

Every jersey out there is for somebody

Unite for HER turns what we raise into real care for real patients: fitness memberships, yoga, nutrition, whole-person support for women in treatment. The research keeps saying the same thing. Movement is medicine.

And most breast cancer caretakers are the men in a patient's life. Husbands, sons, brothers, friends. Spike For Her gives them a reason to show up for the women they love, in the sand, ten minutes at a time.

One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. She is someone on that beach.

Erin Pellegrin of Unite for HER took the mic between games. Sound on.

From the founder

I watched my mom look in the mirror after I shaved her head, and something in me changed for good.

I could not fix what was happening to her. What I could do was make sure no family standing where mine stood would ever have to feel alone while it happened. That became the promise, and Spike For Her is me keeping it.

My life motto is simple: turn all bad into good. Every tear I cried, every sleepless night, every fake smile I wore to be brave for her goes into this day. The noise, the pink as far as you can see, the town packed onto one beach. All of it exists so that somebody in the hardest season of her life can look around and know her circle is bigger than she thought.

Find yours. Hold it close. And when the net goes back up, come find us on the sand.

Zeke T.E. Kane

Founder, Spike For Her

Zeke in a pink Spike For Her jersey and cap with his mom and family at the event tent, holding pink pom-poms
The reason, on the beach with us now.

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Be there when the net goes back up

The next chapter is being built right now. Leave your email and you will be the first to know the day registration opens. No spam, roughly one email a season.

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Fuel the cause today

Donations go to breast cancer patient support through Unite for HER, under The February Foundation. Every dollar buys real care: yoga, nutrition, community for women in treatment.

Donate on Venmo

@spikeforher2 · you will see exactly where it goes on our Instagram

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