Football Team Goes Bald To Support 4th Grader Battling Cancer

CARMICHEALS (KDKA) -- At a pep rally at Carmichaels Area Junior/Senior High School, the football team expects a close shave, and we're not talking about the upcoming game. They're showing support for a Carmichaels fourth grader named Braedyn Wasko, who lost his hair during chemotherapy to fight bone cancer.

Down by the football field, local salon workers shave the players, showing Braedyn and his mom that they are not alone.

"They're going to do it all for me," Braedyn says. "It's just amazing."

"These boys are high school students," says Braedyn's mother, Carlas Hughes. "That's a major part of their life, is their hair. So when they are now going to lose it with him, in support. We're overwhelmed with it."

Without hair, would some players drop a helmet size or two?

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"I think I can still wear the same helmet, but they're going to have to put some air in it," says a player with long, curly hair.

Football coach Ryan Krull pitched the idea to his players.

"They didn't waver, you know. They weren't really concerned about it, you know. They really made the decision right on the spot."

All 41 teammates have agreed to be shorn, and it doesn't stop there. Kids in Carmichaels have raised seven thousand dollars for Braedyn's famly.

The school superintendent admits he had what you might call a "head start" in the baldness category. Meanwhile, Braedyn gets to shave his principal, Fred Morecraft.

"It's just like back when I was in the military, buzzed it right off," the principal laughs. "He did an awesome job. I think he's got a second profession going on right here."

"It feels cool," Braedyn says.