Coach to Shave Head If ‘Play4Kay’ Goal Reached

For the second year in a row, UMaine’s women’s basketball Coach Richard Barron has issued a challenge to the Black Bear community. If the “Play4Kay” cancer benefit reaches its $10,000 goal, he’ll shave his head following the women’s basketball team’s annual Play4Kay game at 1 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 9 at the Harold Alfond Sports Arena. The team will play Albany. Last year, fans and the UMaine community did reach the goal and Barron went ahead with a public shaving.

All donations to the Play4Kay campaign will go to the Kay Yow Foundation to support breast cancer research. To donate, visit the Black Bears’ Play4Kay website.

Yow was a North Carolina State University women’s basketball head coach who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987 and died in 2009. She created the fund to further cancer research and provide cancer patients access to experimental drugs and clinical trials, according to the Play4Kay website. The Kay Yow Cancer Fund has raised more than $8 million in support of women’s cancer research since its inception in 2007, according the organization.

Coach Barron knew Yow from his early coaching days at NC State and has been committed to the cause ever since. “I have been involved with the Kay Yow Fund and Coaches vs. Cancer for close to 20 years and I am very excited about having Maine participate in this cause,” Barron says in a news release.