Student athlete Robert Guerin is getting prepared for his third annual 3B 7-on-7 football tournament to support the awareness of alopecia areata. 

Following last year’s successful campaign, Guerin wants to build off the success and create an event that gains the community’s support. 

As a member of the football team who suffers from the disease, Guerin has involved each player in the tournament for the last two years. The past two years have been strictly football players and competing in the tournament, but Guerin saw an opportunity to increase participation.

 This year, he wants to involve as many student athletes as possible to compete against each other. Players from teams that aren’t participating in the spring, like basketball, hockey and field hockey, have been invited to the draft. The players will be put into a draft pool and select players from these teams will be captains. 

“It’s going to be very interesting this year with the variety of different players on each team,” Guerin said. “I’m excited to see how each team will use each player to their advantage.”

Guerin has also expressed gratitude to the people that have helped him create this year’s event. In previous years, Guerin had put in countless hours to coordinate and set up the event, working with only three people. Now, working with a group of 10, it has allowed him to take a step back and manage the important things for the event.

Guerin’s focus is to attract a more diverse crowd of people, not just athletes. He said he appreciates the support he has been given but wants to offer more for the community’s support.

“This has always been bigger than an athletic event and I want people to understand that. Castleton has always had a great sense of community and I want to build from what has been instilled already,” Guerin said.

Players from last year’s tournament are excited to have other teams involved in the event.

“It’ll be great to have more teams come together and ramp up the competition,” said Josh Peters.

Caleb Graves agrees. 

“It’s nice to see other teams wanting to support a great cause while having fun,” he said.

Jordan Wright said “adding these teams will only add to the competitive nature of the games while boosting attendance.”

Davin McIver said he knows the event will spread awareness for alopecia and show how connected the Castleton campus is.

All proceeds to the event and merchandise sales will again be donated back to the National Alopecia Areata Foundation, which focuses on awareness about the disease, community outreach and fundraising. The other organization being helped is Camp Discovery, which helps kids with any type of skin disorders.

The event will be Saturday May 6 with a noon start time at Dave Wolk Stadium. The games will also be livestreamed on the 3B YouTube channel for those who cannot make the event! For additional updates, visit the 3B Instagram or Twitter page @3Bfundraiser.