Halloween and The End of Beardtober ‘09

On Saturday we hosted Ripon in an offensive slugfest that reminded me somewhat of our loss to Illinois College. Unfortunately we lost this time, too. Even though we’ve lost more games than we’ve won this season, a winning culture is beginning to develop. Our senior class speaks often about how this is the best team they’ve played on in their four years here. It can only go up from here, although we will certainly miss the guidance of our amazing senior class.

The loss to Ripon was also our Senior day, which was also Halloween (more on that later), which was also this year’s last day of a Grinnell College Football tradition: Beardtober. The concept isn’t excruciatingly difficult to understand: throughout the month of October our team holds a beard-growing competition. Yet for those of you who do not truly grasp the meaning of Beardtober, here is an email sent out to the entire team from Ryan Fletcher on the first of Beardtober:

Subject: Grizzly Adams Did Have a Beard

Gentlemen,As of just a few minutes ago, we have embarked as a team on one of our next big challenges: Beardtober. This month is a true test of a man’s pride, perseverance, and mental toughness. The density of your beard is of great importance, but so is your effort. We are a D3 team, we can’t recruit the high school All-American beards. What we can do though, is preach effort. Not all of us are blessed with the great growing power of Tricoli, or the legend, John Denver’s offspring himself- Coach “Red Beard” Pedersen. However, the efforts of men like John “Whiskers” Hereford is what we do praise.Now, to lay down some ground rules:
1.) No shaving above the jaw line
-you can clean the neck to make it a legitimate beard
-for those of great beards, you can trim the whiskers curling over your lip
That’s really the only rule. We do encourage no haircuts, but that doesn’t fit into the guidelines of Beardtober. So get your last shave in, and show off that baby face one last time before it goes into hibernation.

This is a tradition laced in history, so honor it and those legends of its past. Enjoy the trip men, and prepare for that itchy chin strap. Keep your eyes on that light at the end of the tunnel, and Godspeed in your growing season.

Love always,
Fletch

Had I not already been engaged in a challenge for the entire offensive line to go the whole season without shaving, I would have been eligible for the “Worst Beardtober” award. I have to face facts: the good Lord blessed me with many things, and the ability to grow facial hair is most certainly not one of them. Since camp I’ve had to look like a 13-year-old who thinks his uneven little soul patch is the coolest thing ever. To everyone on campus who reads this blog: no, I do not think my weak little facial hair is cool. I want nothing more than to shave (if “shaving” is what you’d call getting rid of tiny little hairs that pop up every week or so). In fact, since Beardtober 31st came and went almost everyone else has shaved. But as I’ve stated plenty of times, I’ll do anything for my team, and if looking like a preteen Backstreet Boy is what’s needed of me, then so be it.

As I promised to mention in this post, Halloween was also on Saturday. This year I decided to put up some pictures of some of the team’s best Halloween costume efforts. Since I run this blog and therefore get to do whatever I want, I’m putting myself up first:

That’s right. Kool-Aid Man. And for those of you who are wondering, that is 100% non-alcoholic-but-still-horrible-for-your-health Kool-Aid. Everyone assumed I had mixed some sort of hard liquor into the drink, but alas: I just had a crap-ton of sugar in me. Ended up drinking about half of that gallon jug of delicious cherry drink through the course of the night.

Next up (and my personal favorite): The Mario Tennis crew. For those of you who don’t know, Mario Tennis was a supremely awesome Nintendo 64 game when whippersnappers my age were growing up. In their infinite wisdom, Nintendo gave their beloved characters tennis rackets and greatness was born. Paying homage to the wonders of Mario Tennis are (left to right): Eric Ragan (GC Golfer), Mike Bogard, Peter Marsho (also a GC Golfer), Logan Granera, Robert Seer and Ryan Creps up in front. Notice Logan’s unwillingness to commit to one costume, resulting in a nice combination between Toad (Nintendo character) and Aladdin (Disney character). Notice also that Ryan Creps has no breathing holes in his Boo costume.

And, of course, there’s the inexplicably ridiculous T.J. Schaid. T.J. decided to let his inner New Jersey bar rat out for Halloween by channeling the guy from the famous YouTube video “My New Haircut”. I’ll add that he does it frighteningly well. Publishing pictures of T.J. ensures I’ll have high traffic numbers because he goes to the site constantly to look at them.

I know I already put Bogard’s picture up here, but this one perfectly illustrates what Beardtober can do for a Halloween costume when you tweak the facial hair a little. That ’stache belongs in the pantheon of greats.

Matt John, Jimmy Borrasso, Robert LaPorte and Kelsey Davis went for the cult classic film “Super Troopers”. Absent in the picture is Curtis McCoy, who also displayed some rockin’ aviators.

Last but certainly not least, the winners of the campus halloween costume contest (mainly due to their sheer charm), The Mighty Ducks. (From left to right) Marc Heronemus, Ryan Fletcher, Chad Christoff, John Hereford and Ben Johnson. There isn’t much to say about this photo other than that it should be kept in the Grinnell Football archives as one of the greatest photos ever.

We definitely had some fun over the weekend, but this week we’ve gotten back to work. Thanks to daylight savings time we spend most of practice under lights hooked up to a loud generator. It’s like a ghetto version of the crowd noise some teams pump into their stadiums during practice. We’re utterly determined to end the season on a positive note and to send our great senior class out with a win, and so is Beloit. It promises to be a heck of a season finale. Personally, I need to have a good game this week; the offseason is long, and it’s hard not to go back and rethink every move you made during the season. Therefore, it’s important for me to imprint a positive performance on my mind that can last me until next August. It’s an important week, and I’m trying to cherish every moment and never take it for granted. One more game with this team is nothing short of a blessing.