Oct. 17, 2013

CHICAGO - Senior men's soccer player Josh Beard will be providing Flames' fans with an inside look into the 2013 squad with a weekly segment called `Blogging with Beard'. Beard will blog about team traditions, traveling, memorable moments and many other aspects that make the UIC men's soccer squad unique. Aside from being a starting defender for the Flames, Beard is also a communications major with an interest in creative writing.

Blog #6

Breast cancer is commonly associated with the color pink, and this month I will be wearing pink every day to help raise awareness. If you see me around campus this month, I will have pink hair to support the cause.

Raising awareness is a big deal to me because breast cancer affected my family and me in a big way, my mother is a survivor. Over the course of my college career at UIC, my mother was battling breast cancer. A few of my other teammates have gone through similar situations, either with their mothers or people close to them, so raising awareness is important to us.

Soccer does not have a "pink out" game the way that volleyball does, therefore we decided to take it upon ourselves to promote the cause. Throughout the month of October, my teammates will be wearing pink t-shirts on various days, as Alex Yeung did the other day, as well as wearing pink during games. Since we do not have pink jerseys, those of us who wear tape will have on pink tape, and some of us will have pink laces in our soccer shoes.

We ask that during the month of October, you also wear pink in support of raising awareness for breast cancer.