BY NATHAN SOLOMON, SPORTS EDITOR
On Sunday, the St. Bonaventure men’s lacrosse team traveled to Lafayette College for the Nick Colleluori Classic, an exhibition event benefiting families affected by cancer. The HEADstrong foundation raises money for families through an event called the ‘HEADstrong LaxStache Madness’. The Bonnies will grow mustaches throughout the program while challenging other lacrosse teams to raise money.
“A young man awhile back, Nick Colleluori, had passed away from cancer,” coach Randy Mearns said. “There’s a lot of expenses that maybe insurances don’t cover, you know, not necessarily the medical treatment but the support. If your son or daughter [is] at a hospital, like, how do you support the family to cover hotel rooms while they’re going through treatment.
“There’s probably not very many people that I know that have not been infected by cancer. You live long enough, [and] it affects everybody”.
Last fall, the Bonnies raised $20,400 for the HEADstrong Foundation, placing them as one of the top teams in the country. This fall, St. Bonaventure wants to surpass $20,000 again but has no plans to stop there.
“Interestingly enough, last year, we got off to such a great start and we were kind of in the lead with the HEADstrong mustache madness,” Mearns said. “At the end of the day, a couple of other colleges kind of overtook us at the end. I think we kind of ran out of steam, so I think Coach Capron has got a little bit more of a game plan to try to stay in the lead and get us over the hump dinner there at the end”.
To benefit the charity, the Bonnies took the field against both Lafayette and Mount St. Mary’s on Sunday. The event allowed Mearns to evaluate his entire roster and allow the Bonnies to play against a different opponent for the first time since early May.
“We played extremely well in both games,” Mearns explained. “It was exciting to see our offensive click under Coach Connors. He’s done a tremendous job with the offense. That offensive core just moved the ball so well, so fast, they know all the designs. They know all the different little looks within a player, within a design.
“We might look completely different than we did you know, obviously as freshmen, but even from last year, we obviously had some success last year and got to our conference semifinals. But we feel like we’re just even a different team, like we’ve continued to progress”.
After finishing 5-5 in 2021, the Bonnies have elevated expectations in 2022 with almost the entire team returning for another season. The Bonnies will be in the mix for a MAAC Championship and events like the Nick Colleluori Classic help the team prepare for the spring.
“We can do something pretty amazing here,” Mearns said. “I think our guys are going to rise to the challenge. They continue to talk about getting better every day. That short term or long-term goal from a season standpoint is [to] get to our conference championship, win our conference, and get to the NCAA’s. They’re realistic, believable goals. It’s not going to come easy. It’s really hard to do, and we got to put in a ton of more work. But we’re finally at that level, and that’s a great thing to see. And that’s what we’re going to build upon”.
solomonj20@bonaventure.edu
