Georgia Southern head coach Mark Byington is participating this week in the national Coaches vs. Cancer Suits & Sneakers Week initiative.

This week was founded more than 25 years ago and all 12 Sun Belt schools are taking part in the event with intentions of raising funds and awareness of the fight against cancer. GS is doing this in partnership with American Cancer Society in the Sun Belt Fights Cancer.

“These types of things like Coaches vs. Cancer, the Jimmy V Classic a lot of different things college basketball coaches do to raise money,” Byington said. “I think it’s one of the best things we do as college basketball coaches.”

GS will be participating in this event in their upcoming home games against UT-Arlington and Texas State. Byington made sure to touch on future events like the pink out to raise awareness for breast cancer.

“I think the athletic department as a whole does a lot off the court whether it be Walk a Mile in Her Shoes and Relay for Life,” Byington said. “This is something that goes bigger than our sport, that can save lives.”

As far as what shoes the head coach will wear, Byington has yet to decide, but doesn’t want to look awkward.

“The hardest thing is deciding whether you’re going with a tie or without a tie because a tie and tennis shoes sometimes don’t go well,” Byington said. “I know there have been sometimes where people didn’t know what we were doing and thought I was just being lazy.”

Earlier in the week North Carolina head coach Roy Williams went with Off-White’s Air Jordan 1’s, drawing a viral reaction. 

{{tncms-inline account=”Aaron Dodson” html=”<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Roy Williams in the Off-White UNC 1s 👀 <a href="https://t.co/FgSkbghnWY">pic.twitter.com/FgSkbghnWY</a></p>— Aaron Dodson (@aardodson) <a href="https://twitter.com/aardodson/status/1087502616463052802?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 22, 2019</a></blockquote>” id=”https://twitter.com/aardodson/status/1087502616463052802″ type=”twitter”}}

“I like sneakers, but I’m not like these guys,” Byington said, referencing his players. “I’ll probably come up with what the cleanest shoes I have at the moment will be the ones I’ll wear.”

McClain Baxley, The George-Anne Daily Managing Editor, gasports@georgiasouthern.edu