Penn State Hockey Taking ‘Movember’ To Next Level This Season
For the past few Novembers, a select few Penn State hockey players have sported their best lip sweaters to celebrate “Movember.”
The team’s social media accounts have run fan votes and posted goofy photos of the mustachioed Nittany Lions (for the record, some looked much more ridiculous than the others) to determine who’s got the best “Mo.”
This year, however, every player on the team will participate in a different competition. Penn State hockey sports information director John Hanna organized the idea of having the players raise money for the actual “Movember” charity. He’s the team’s “Movember” captain this year.
The goal of “Movember” is to reduce the amount of premature male deaths by 25% before 2030, and it hopes to accomplish this by decreasing mortality rates in prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and suicide. On average, men’s lives are six years shorter than women’s, and most of their causes of death are preventable.
“It’s something everybody’s been affected by — or knows somebody who’s been affected by,” junior wing Alex Limoges said of the cause. “Right now, we have a 100% success rate on Movember. Everybody’s raised some money, and everybody’s having fun with it in the locker room.”
Penn State is competing with the rest of the Big Ten’s hockey programs to raise money, and the team’s currently in first place by a landslide. At the time of publication, the Nittany Lions have raised $5,993 for “Movember,” which is way ahead of Notre Dame’s second-placed total of $1,727. Elsewhere, Michigan has raised $685, and Wisconsin has racked up $510 in donations so far.
Every player on the Nittany Lions has a “Movember” page where you can make donations, but some of them can’t get in on the mustachioed fun.
According to Limoges, junior defensemen Alex Stevens and Cole Hults simply can’t grow facial hair, which just might explain why they’re using electric selfies of Peyton Jones and Paul DeNaples on their respective “Movember” pages.
So far, Limoges is the Nittany Lions’ leader with a total of $715 raised for the cause. James Gobetz is second with $650 in donations, and DeNaples ranks third with $550. The fundraising is undoubtedly the main proponent of each team’s “Movember” competition, but the real fun is in deciding who has the best mustache in Penn State’s hockey program.
Head coach Guy Gadowsky cast his vote for Brandon Biro’s ‘stache as the worst on the team without hesitation, but who’s got the best lip sweater going?
“[Blake] Gober’s is good,” Gadowsky said. “Have you seen it?”
Defenseman Clayton Phillips thinks his shorter ‘stache is the best-groomed among the Nittany Lions, but he reluctantly thinks Evan Barratt has the best one overall. Meanwhile, Limoges thinks that Liam Folkes has the best lip sweater on the team so far.
Folkes, for one, definitely isn’t as modest as some of his teammates — and he has a few bones to pick with some who are “cheating.”
“I for sure have the best one,” said Folkes, who finished as the runner-up to Ludvig Larsson in last year’s “Movember” fan vote. “I started on day one, and everyone else started on, like, October 3. They’re cheating, and they’re using Just For Men and stuff like that. I’m not a big fan of the Just For Men. It’s cheating.
“Guys like John [Hanna] — they have beards all month in October and just shave it into a mustache [on November 1]. They’re like, ‘oh yeah, this is my Movember.’ It doesn’t work like that.”
For what it’s worth, Hanna was still rocking a full beard at Monday’s media availability.
After Saturday’s game, Evan Barratt said products like Just For Men are fair game — even if he claims to not need it. If he couldn’t pick himself, Barratt would say Paul DeNaples has the best mustache on the team.
Meanwhile, Folkes agrees with his head coach’s assessment as far as who has the worst ‘stache. He’s clearly taking no prisoners in this competition, either.
“Biro. It’s too blonde,” he said. “He looks like he’s five years old.”
Here are some of the best pictures from the team’s page:
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