High school athlete with cancer receives warm gesture of support from team at 'hair shaving' party

True friendship always stands the test of time and Kevin Winegar can surely say that he has found some great friends on his school football team. The 16-year-old, who is being treated for cancer, decided to host a “hair shaving” party but what he didn’t expect was his full high school football team to turn up and support him, reports Good Morning America.

“I basically invited the whole school saying, ‘Hey, whoever wants to, like, come shave their heads for me or just want to shave their heads you can come over, we can do that,'” shared Winegar.

His mother, Doorly, was equally surprised by the number of teenagers who showed up. “He’s been a part of these teams at school and they’ve been with him since day one. They just kept coming and showing up and showing up. And it was so moving,” said Doorly.

She also posted a video on her Instagram of the “hair shaving” party. There are clips of Winegar’s hair being shaved off, then of his high school teammates who are getting their hair shaved off. It ends with group shots of the team and other friends from the school. The footage is set to the audio of Kobe Bryant’s famous quote on greatness.

The video is captioned, “What a high! A house full of teenagers that chose to support their friend with cancer on a Friday night. There are no words. But this right here is what makes a heavy load lighter.” People on social media appreciated the sort of support Winegar has. @shaylondon1 commented, “What an amazing group of friends he has! This shows how amazing HE is to inspire so many people to love and support him and shave their heads with him.” @jiuuac wrote, “Wow!! Goosebumps! What a community.” @hey.summer.a expressed, “What a special day to witness the love of his circle.”

Winegar was diagnosed with leukemia in December 2022. The 16-year-old is a star athlete on his high school football team. “In the fourth week of the season, I started to get leg pain, especially in my knee. They said it was my MCL which is a tendon on your knee and then a little bit at the end, I’d say week ten, I started getting hip pain and a little bit of thigh pain. And we went to the doctor to check out my knee and we got knee work done and said, this does not look good,” said the teenager.

“And the E.R. said I got diagnosed with leukemia  And I probably played with leukemia for a while," he added. The teenager’s chemo treatments started shortly after diagnosis. “Like after a shower, I had just put my hand through my hair and I’d have like my whole hand would be like brown or I’d see like a lot of hair," he said. That's when he decided to shave off his hair. 

Winegar's cancer treatment will go on for two more years. However, his mother said, "The coach has promised him that he can be on the sidelines. He can help me with the team. He’s still 100% part of the team. We just don’t know if he can tackle."