Halloween is a time to go all out. And as a senior in college, I finally embraced the weekend and actually did go all out.

In previous years, I just threw something together last minute and ended up basically just doing the bare minimum.

For this year’s get-up, I needed serious commitment from not only myself, but my seven friends who planned on joining in on it.

I spent the last month or so growing out my facial hair to the point where it became scraggly and gross. It had never gotten that long before, but this was a serious weekend for us.

We were going to be the Blackhawks and I was headmaster coach Joel Quennville. I ended up shaving down to a mustache, but that was not enough.

I dyed my hair gray and dyed the ‘stache gray as well. I even wore a suit. Not going to lie, I pulled off the old guy look.

But without my group, my “costume” is just some kid walking around dressed up in a suit, gray hair and a creepy gray mustache. It would have made no sense. Which is why the key to that night was that we stayed together or I at least had to have three of the seven with me at all times.

But we were committed.

It was the perfect costume idea amongst a bunch of good friends. So shoutout to Andrew Shaw (Dan Howard), Patrick Sharp (Kyle Paulsen), Patrick Kane (Dwight Faber), Patrick Kane part two (Kurt), Jonathan Toews (Anthony), Niklas Hjalmarsson (Juan Sindac) and Jonathan Toews part two (Khalil Johnson).

Also, have to give credit to the referees Kelsey Jones and Sarah Gosciniak. Lots of bad calls, but they were vital to the operation.

Dying my hair gray with the special Halloween spray I got from CVS scared me, I am not going to lie.

Because my hair is way longer than Coach Q’s, I tied it back in a bun to make sure that it looked shorter than it was. Problem with that was that my hair hardened because of the spray, and I feared ripping my hair off my head.

Everything turned out A-OK in the end.

Like I said at the beginning, this took commitment from the top to bottom, and with Dan being a graduate, he made the trip to Eastern for the weekend. That may have been one of the best things for us.

We did not have enough jerseys here to supply the entire team, so he was able to stop at my house, pick up three extra jerseys and sticks for everyone.

The pictures were priceless. So priceless that when I submitted it to the Chicago Blackhawks Store for the Halloween costume contest, I was chosen as a winner and got an autographed puck.

I wish I could be Coach Q for one more night.

Who would have thought that going all-out on Halloween would lead to a signed puck by a Blackhawk? Even if I was not going to get it, I would do it again in a heartbeat.