Not smoking, being physically active, maintaining a healthy body weight, eating a healthy diet, controlling blood pressure, controlling cholesterol and controlling blood sugar. These are seven simple rules that the American Heart Association puts out in order for people to live a better lifestyle.

This past Sunday, Sept. 25, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville men’s soccer team played Minnesota-Morris in their Play for a Cause game. This was the first annual Play for a Cause game the team has put on. The event was started by head coach of men’s soccer, Enzo Fuschino. Fuschino has been the head coach since 2007.

In 2009, Fuschino suffered a heart-attack, but luckily recovered. According to the American Heart Association website, some risk factors for heart attacks are age, gender and genetics. The latter is what affected Fuschino.  Being a survivor, Fuschino feels strongly about supporting research on heart disease and reached out to the American Heart Association to see if the team could help raise money to put towards research. He had all of the players play with a red ribbon on their sleeves to show their support to the heart association.

“I hope that this game means something more to the players, knowing they are raising money for such a good cause,” Fuschino said when asked what he hopes this game means to his players.

Senior player and accounting and business supply double major Keith Baerwald was excited to be playing for a cause for the first time this year.

“This game will be another opportunity to help bring awareness to the cause,” Baerwald said.

The Pioneers won the game 3-1, which gave Fuschino his 100th win as head coach and improved the team’s season record to 8-2. However, the real win was raising awareness about heart disease.

More information about the American Heart Association can be found at heart.org.