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The Texas women’s basketball team is hosting a preseason exhibition game vs. DePaul on Sunday in order to raise money for the city of Uvalde to build a new school following the shooting in May at Robb Elementary that left 21 dead, including 19 children.
All of the ticket sales will go directly to the fund for Uvalde’s new school, Uvalde CISD Moving Forward Foundation. Robb Elementary is permanently closed after the tragedy, and the city is planning on demolishing the building.
Additionally, Texas coach Vic Schaefer plans to donate $1,000 for every 1,000 fans in attendance. His goal is to have 10,000 tickets sold.
“Sometimes you feel helpless, wanting to help somebody,” Schaefer said, per USA Today. “I felt like this might be an opportunity for us as a university, as an athletic department and my program to really reach out.”
As of Wednesday, the game had 3,000 tickets sold.
Schaefer came up with the idea of the exhibition game to help out Uvalde’s school district earlier in the summer while he was in Chicago for a basketball event. The NCAA allows public exhibition games if the reason is either for donating to charity, raising awareness for social justice issues or supporting recovery efforts for a major tragedy, such as the Uvalde school shooting.
DePaul coach Doug Bruno was on board with Schaefer’s idea.
“Unfortunately, the Uvalde tragedy could have happened anywhere,” Bruno said. “As citizens of the greatest country in the world, we have an obligation to work to end all violence, including gun violence.”
The game will be broadcast on Longhorn Network.
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