Jay McAree
Equinox Staff
With the pink bat that cracks the home run, the pink socks sticking out of a running backs shoes as he cuts upfield for a touchdown, the pink ice that lies underneath the skates of a player ready to hit a slap shot through the goal, the awareness for Women’s Breast Cancer is abundant and highly popular.
Now there is some awareness for men’s health issues; and it comes in the form of a mustache.
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The KSC Men’s Ice Hockey Club teamed up with Movember to raise awareness and funds for prostate and testicular cancer.
Each year Movember comes around and the organization encourages everyone to start clean shaven on Nov 1, and continue to the growth until Nov 30.
The mustache’s are the advertisement and the more attention you bring to it, the better.
Communication Director for the team Ray Waldron was the man responsible for bringing the idea forward.
Waldron said, “I’ve known about Movember for awhile and the NHL did a whole big thing for it last year, so I thought it would be a great way for us to get out to the Keene community, and make ourselves known for doing something good.”
Head Coach Bobby Rodrigue said that it took no effort to get all the players and coaches on board.
“The team had already done a mustache thing like two years ago when they were at a point in the season where it looked like they weren’t going to make the tournament and we did it with them too to support them,” Rodrigue said.
He continued, “Not that anyone is going to see our guys on ESPN or NBC, but the truth is I would think the 25 guys with weird looking mustaches for a month are going to draw a little bit of attention. So if it helps to raise awareness and we can help them raise some funds for that cause, it is even better.”
The hockey team here is no stranger to mustaches according to team president and captain Pat Sullivan.
“We do this game at the end of practice every month called “mustache boy.” All the skaters perform in a shootout in which the loser must sport a mustache for the next month,” Sullivan said.
He also echoed the words of his coach, “It is a really good cause because as much as you want to grow as a team, you also have to, at one point, start to give back to the community that has been supporting you.”
How it worked was the hockey club had a specific team page and anybody could donate through the team as a whole, or through certain individuals.
The team was able to raise over $2,000 dollars in their efforts together.
As far as those on the team who were, let’s say, follically challenged, Coach Rodrigue offered some advice.
“We’ve told ‘em to start early and to stay in the back for the pictures. We’ve got some guys for whom this will be right in their wheelhouse and some guys not so much,” Rodrigue said.
Without question, there had to be some picks by coaches and players for who would have the best mustache. Some of the front runners before it all started were Mike Beaudet, Cam Gould and Mike Allen. With front runners also comes some sleeper picks too which included Colby Tyler, Derek Clark, and Matt Gould.
Hopefully the students at KSC were treated to some pretty intense mustaches over the last month and the donations didn’t go unnoticed as the hockey club donation total put them in the top 10% of all teams across the U.S.
Jay McAree can be contacted at
jmcaree@keene-equinox.com