Tanner Robertsen has seen his mother and a grandmother deal with breast cancer this year.

And although both have finished chemotherapy treatments and are hopefully through battling the disease, he wanted to do something to honor them and raise awareness about breast cancer.

Inspired by NFL teams who wore pink accessories during Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October, he asked his dad, Mike, to get him a pair of pink socks to wear when he played for the Elburn Lions football team. Robertsen bought a pair from a Kaneland High School athletics group raising money for a breast cancer charity. They kept it a secret from mom Donna, who cried when the announcer said why her son was doing it.

And that might have been it. Except that Tanner, 12, has very supportive friends.

"The next week the whole team got them," Mike Robertsen said. "It was cool."

Robertsen said he and his wife were worried about how their children would handle the affect of her cancer. "To see his friends come to his side" showed integrity and good sportsmanship, values the Robertsens believe participation in youth sports can develop.

The Lions will wear the pink socks at their last game of the season at 3 p.m. Saturday at Aurora Christian School in Aurora.

There's talk, Robertsen said, that next year the whole Aurora Superstars league might wear the pink socks during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

"To see something like this, it really inspires hope" that the next generation is becoming dedicated to finding a cure for breast cancer, he said.

"When I was a kid you'd have had to tie me down to get those things on me."