For the month of November, anyone that walks around the Robert Morris University campus will see members of the NCAA men’s hockey and lacrosse teams sporting mustaches to raise money and awareness for prostate and testicular cancer research.
These students are not trying to start some sort of trend; they are showing their support for a cause they all support—Movember.
This year, the men’s hockey and lacrosse teams will be teaming up as the Bobby Mo Bros at www.movember.com to raise money and awareness.
“We’re growing the mustaches, and we’re selling shirts this year. Every year we try to do a different design,” said senior lacrosse attacker, Jake Hayes. “This year it’s our mascot with the mustache, and this year, we’re teaming up with the hockey guys and doing the Movember site.”
After the success that the men’s hockey team had last year, they knew it would be a no-brainer to team up with the men’s lacrosse team this year.
Senior men’s hockey forward, Zach Hervato, was approached by Hayes to join the groups together around a month ago.
“We said ‘well why don’t we just team up with the t-shirts and with the Bobby Mo Bros and raise double the amount of money?’ We all hang out, we all support each other and Jake agreed,” said Hervato. “His team is currently in the midst of signing up on the site again, and we’re helping out as well, so it’s good that instead of having 20-something guys, we have 60-some guys raising money.”
Both Hayes and Hervato have many reasons for participating in the Movember campaign. “Personally, I heard of it and I thought it was a good idea and it’s for a good cause so why not grow a mustache and raise some money,” said Hayes.
“Well, after last year’s success, I think everybody felt that we could do better,” said Hervato. “I’m very passionate about it, so I figured why not be the guy to start the team and keep everybody motivated and determined to participate again.”
According to Hayes, this has also been a way for the two teams to interact and get to know each other better.
“I really didn’t know them very well. Last year, there were a couple of seniors on our team that played junior hockey with some of the guys on the hockey team,” said Hayes. “We realized we can probably raise a lot more money with 43 guys on our team and 20-plus on theirs.“
With over 60 student-athletes participating in this movement, Hervato believes they can raise more money than the men’s hockey team did last year.
“Last year, it was close to $4,000 and it was just our team. Now, we have the lacrosse guys behind us, so I would like to double that for sure,” said Hervato. “We have a lot of guys, so hopefully we can at least raise at least double what we did last year.”
Although this will be a time where they are raising funds and awareness for serious diseases, the teams will still have fun growing their mustaches.
Both Hayes and Hervato believe the lacrosse team will grow a better mustache, but that won’t be from a lack of effort from the hockey team.
“There’s some guys on the lacrosse team that can’t even grow a mustache. One of my roommates, Connor Martin can’t even grow a mustache, but there’s some young guys that are starting right now, so they can have something for it,” joked Hayes. “The hockey guys come to school late because they have to finish their junior careers, but I think the lacrosse team will have better mustaches.”
“That’s a tough one. We have a really young team, and we have a lot of freshmen that are 19-years-old and don’t have any facial hair,” admitted Hervato. “They might take us out on that. They’re a lot older than us, but we’ll see. It will be a good competition.”
The Sentry, in conjunction with the men’s hockey and lacrosse teams, will provide weekly updates on how much money the teams have raised and how their mustaches are coming along.
