Members of Alpha Tau Omega and the Marshall University Recreation Center staff competed in a soccer tournament this past weekend to show support for a Marshall student recently diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

Thomas Logston, a junior at Marshall, discovered he had thyroid cancer over winter break when he visited a doctor for a routine physical. Logston is a member of Alpha Tau Omega and is an intramural official at the Recreation Center.

Matthew Schaefer, the coordinator of competitive sports and camps, said the Recreation Center wanted to help show support for a student that has been an exemplary intramural official for the last year and a half.

“The goal of this tournament,” Schaefer said, “was to promote awareness about thyroid cancer, as well as supporting Tommy in the ways we can.”

The event consisted of four different teams competing in a double-elimination soccer tournament. Roughly 30 people participated. The teams were created by the Recreation Center staff as well as an Alpha Tau Omega fraternity.

The tournament ended with Fox and the Hounds playing against ATO. Fox and the Hounds won 5-2.

Allie Price, a sophomore secondary English education major, said she believes everyone coming together to show support for Thomas was nice.

“It’s great to see people come together for one purpose,” Price said. “I feel like a lot of people that showed up didn’t really know soccer, and that just shows they were here to support the cause.”

The money raised during the event is being used to purchase a personalized soccer jersey for Logston, and the rest of the proceeds are being donated to Tommy’s family to assist with medical costs.

Matt Regan, a senior history and Spanish major, stated that as soon as the fraternity heard the news of Logston’s cancer, they wanted to help in some way. Regan also said he was not surprised that so many people signed up to play

“Tommy is loved around campus, so it doesn’t surprise me at all that we had this many people came out,” Regan said. “It definitely does feel good to see all these people out here supporting Tommy and seeing everybody being Tommy Strong.”

Logston is currently undergoing treatment at home. He said he hopes to return to school after Easter. Logston said that even though the diagnosis came as a shock to him, he was thankful to have such a caring family from both his fraternity and the Recreation Center.

“ATO was there for each other through everything no matter what, and I experienced this first hand with this situation,” Logston said. “It’s given me not just best friends but brothers for the rest of my life that I can’t thank enough. And the Rec Center staff will do anything for you, just help or make you feel better at any time of the days.”

Sarah Ingram can be contacted at [email protected].