For a good cause, Surrey Eagles broadcaster Joey Pitt is growing one massive mullet.
This hockey season, his first with the team as play caller, Pitt’s crazy-long hair is the talk of the BC Hockey League on social media.
“The last time I got a sizable haircut was when I was still living in the Okanagan and I got a job selling cars,” reported Pitt, who now lives in Cloverdale. “I had a good mullet going at the time but I figured it was time to look professional and I cut it off then, in June of 2020. Since then it’s just been straight growth.”
Turns out, Pitt had a friend dying of cancer at the time.
“The initial mullet, I started growing it back in 2019, and I had a buddy diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. I joked with him, ‘Hey Avery, I’m going to grow my hair out and then shave it off and make a wig for you.’ He got a kick out of it, and all our friends, plus if I ever did it, it would be really nice, you know.”
This hockey season he’s doing that “nice” thing and growing his hair to make a wig for a kid going through cancer treatments, in partnership with Wigs for Kids and BC Children’s Hospital.
An online fundraising page collects donations, with the goal of raising $15,000 over the next few months.
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The best part of the broadcast.
— Joey Pitt 🎙🚨 (@_JoeyPitt) October 1, 2022
Help the @SurreyEagles raise $15,000 for @WigsforKidsBC and SHAVE MY HEAD!
Donate if you can:https://t.co/mH9PrBlaO0 pic.twitter.com/CzO8Ze9T3j
Joey Pitt gets the stage set for our first meeting with the Victoria Grizzlies this season!
— Surrey Eagles (@SurreyEagles) October 30, 2022
📍The Q Centre
🆚 Victoria Grizzlies
⏰ 7:00
📺 BCHLTV
🎙️ https://t.co/FYsD3dOHV3 pic.twitter.com/qCH1U6KE6N
• RELATED: Island split for Surrey Eagles as team falls to division-leading Clippers, tops Grizzlies.
The hairy fundraiser is close to Pitt’s heart, as Avery died this past summer, around the time he was hired by the Eagles to call their games.
“After we lost Avery, there was no question that I was going to do what I’m doing now,” Pitt said. “He was a chef, and I used to work with him at Earl’s in Penticton. He was one of my best friends, and we used to close (the restaurant) together.”
Next spring, during the final home game of the Eagles’ season on March 19, someone will shave Pitt bald.
“We’re raising the money and the goal is to hopefully grow it out until then,” he explained. “We’ll make it our big dedicated Wigs For Kids game where we’ll hopefully have representatives there and the designated barber they use for wig development. That’s the light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak, and then after that I’ll finally be able to, like, wear hats on my head and stuff.”
Pitt has heard a lot of jokes about his hair over the past couple of years, “including a lot of ‘Stranger Things’ jokes,” he noted.
”I joke on the broadcasts that at the end of all this, I’m going to be walking around looking like Stone Cold Steve Austin, or Alex Auld or Vin Diesel — you know, ‘insert bald celebrity here.’ But the goal is to go completely bald, yes, for that sharp contrast — this is what it was, this is what it is now. I am hoping my hair will grow back after that.”
For next hockey season, Pitt has an idea.
“Maybe we can convince the kid who gets the wig to come into the booth and call a game with me,” he said. “Or maybe it’s a couple kids, I don’t know. Right now you could probably make two wigs and an area rug out of my hair.”
As for his job calling Eagles games, it’s “been a blast” this season.
“The team is really good on the ice,” Pitt said, “and I love all the boys on the roster, super friendly, and it’s easy to make good content with them for social media, too. They’re just so game and fun to be around, and they’re even better on the ice. It’s fun to call games for a winning team.”
Last weekend, the soaring Eagles were downed for just their second loss of the BCHL season during a two-game weekend trip on Vancouver Island. Friday (Oct. 28) in Nanaimo, the Clippers shaved the Eagles 5-2 at Frank Crane Arena, before the Surrey squad rebounded Saturday with a 5-1 win over Victoria Grizzlies at The Q Centre.
Looking ahead, on Friday (Nov. 4) the Eagles will host Powell River Kings at South Surrey Arena starting at 7 p.m., on Veterans Night (free admission for all vets). For tickets and other details, visit tickets.surreyeagles.ca.
On Saturday (Nov. 5), the Eagles will battle the Rivermen at Langley’s George Preston Arena.
tom.zillich@surreynowleader.com
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