by Blayne Fink–
Joey Slye is no stranger to being nominated for and winning awards. The Virginia Tech football team’s junior kicker was a semifinalist for the Lou Groza Award in 2016, awarded to the nation’s top placekicker, while also earning a spot on ESPN.com’s all-bowl team in 2015 and being named one of the team’s two Hard Hat Champions for 2017. However, no award may mean more to Slye than that of being named the 2017 Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Man of the Year for Virginia, an award that will be presented this May.
Slye, who lost his brother to Leukemia in February of 2014, was approached in December about running for the Virginia Chapter Man of the Year. According to the Virginia Man and Woman of the Year website, earning the title is based on dynamic and passionate individuals raising funds for blood cancer research.
Slye explains that being named this year’s LLS Man of the Year would have an even deeper meaning, as much of LLS’ research is being aimed at Acute Myeloid Leukemia, the cancer that claimed his brother’s life.
“Honestly, it’s crazy that I’m running this year when LLS’ main focus is going straight to AML,” said Slye. “He’s gone, but it’s kind of cool to know that every cent I make right now would have gone directly to him or someone else’s A.J.”
In order to claim rights to the title of Man of the Year, a candidate must out-fundraise the competing candidates. In an attempt to raise money for his campaign, Slye hosted the fundraiser “Help Joey Kick Cancer” on Sunday, April 23, in the Indoor Practice Facility. The event, which also played host to the Be The Match campaign, an initiative that swabs potential donors and places them on the bone marrow registry, was successful in raising over $6,000 and swabbed over 350 participants.
While Slye’s competitive spirit most certainly applies to the Man of the Year competition, he ultimately just wants to continue to bring attention to a personal cause.
“It’s fundraising money and spreading awareness in good competition with other people,” said Slye. “I mean yes, we want to win, but at the same time, we know as a collective group we are fundraising money that is going directly towards cancer research.”
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