Laurier football team defeats Waterloo in a great initiative: Donating the most blood through October
While there was no on-the-field battle of Waterloo this season for the Golden Hawks and the Warriors, both universities took part in a great initiative,: donating blood throughout the month of October.
Unfortunately, due to the OUA cancellation, this year did not feature the annual Laurier and Waterloo football game. However, the Golden Hawks, who have won nine out of the past ten 10 battles against their cross-city rivals — including a wild triple overtime victory last year — were able to pick up another victory this October, : donating the most blood to the Canadian Blood Services in KW.
“Obviously, there’s two great universities on one street in the city of Waterloo. So, leading up to what would have been the battle of Waterloo on the field and with us unable to play that, we thought, ‘why not do something else?’” Michael Faulds, Laurier men’s football coach said.
The campaign was kicked off by both the Waterloo and Laurier football programs and encouraged student-athletes, coaches and fans to participate and donate blood throughout the month of October.
In conjunction with the Canadian Blood Services, the two programs led by Coach Faulds and Warriors head coach Chris Bertoia engaged in videos and promoted the initiative to both of their teams, staff and schools.
“Coach Bertoia and I thought it would be a great idea and we had some fun with it,” Faulds said.
“We’re all competitors but we realized every single donation is so meaningful whether it was a Laurier student-athlete or Waterloo student-athlete,” he added.
Much of the Golden Hawks football team participated in the campaign, including assistant head coach and defensive coordinator, Ron VanMoerkerke, and offensive line coach, Zach Scotto.
The KW Canadian Blood Services were appreciative of the campaign and the battle of Waterloo will be continuing into November. The focus for the University of Waterloo will be their volleyball teams, while both the men’s and women’s soccer teams at Laurier will compete to donate the most blood throughout this month.
Coach Faulds has developed a great culture through his six plus years now leading the Golden Hawks football team and recognizes the importance of such an initiative.
“This is something that the Canadian Blood Services says is always needed. Anytime they have a time spot that isn’t filled with someone donating blood, that’s not a good thing,” Faulds said.
The KW blood services are always looking for people to donate blood and encourage anyone who is eligible to visit their website and book an appointment to donate blood.
Coach Faulds encourages all student-athletes to learn more about blood donations and jump on board as his and Bertoia’s program did in October. “There is are enough young, strong student-athletes around. And 20 minutes of their day every eight weeks can save lives.”
