38 Limestone Men’s Lacrosse Players Shed Manes For A Good Cause

Limestone College’s top-ranked men’s lacrosse team raised $38,000 for a good cause in less than two days, and all it took was a pair of clippers.

A total of 38 players showed up March 1 for the Saints’ 23-12 win over Saint Leo University in Savannah, Ga., with freshly buzzed heads as part of a cancer research fundraiser started by Brown University lacrosse players.

A group of anonymous donors have pledged to donate $1,000 to Boston Children’s Hospital for every college lacrosse player who shaves their head.

The college lacrosse community is a close group where more than 70 men’s lacrosse teams have now joined a Lacrosse for Life foundation effort to raise money and awareness for cancer research at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Limestone team leaders Jake Crotser and midfielder Clark Walter didn’t hesitate to contact their teammates about shaving their heads after they heard about the cause from coach J.B. Clarke.

“The big thing for our team is we always are looking for ways to give back to the community,” Crotser said. “This is a cause much bigger than our team. I think the mindset of a lot of us was it’s just too much money to give up for some hair that is just going to grow back, especially when it’s for a cause like cancer research that is going to make a difference in someone’s life.”

The lacrosse fundraiser supports cancer research at Boston Children’s Hospital, a teaching affiliate for Harvard Medical School and a research institution dedicated to children’s medicine in the country.

Notable efforts include clinical trials to research pediatric cancer, blood disorders and a gene therapy program to treat rare conditions in children. In 2017, doctors at Boston Children’s Hospital were the first to use gene therapy to treat a degenerative brain disease.

After learning about the hospital’s work, Limestone lacrosse players were quick to respond when Walter invited them to an off-campus house for a date with a razor Feb. 27 before the Saint Leo game.

“Within an hour, 35 guys were in there to get their heads shaved. We did it as a group, which was nice,” Walter said. “Saint Leo had 17 players on their team that had shaved to support the cause so there were a lot of bald heads out there running around on the field. We did have a few players with long hair on our team who were holdouts. They are going to shave at the end of the year and donate some hair to another cause such as ‘Locks for Love.’”

(Article by Scott Powell, The Gaffney Ledger, March 6, 2020)