SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Like a lot of things these days, it all started with one tweet.
Now, the Santa Clara University men's cross country team has gained fame, seemingly overnight, with their unique headshots.
Every year, Citius Magazine posts an annual team headshot roundup, looking for the oddest compilation of team pictures.
This year, Santa Clara University takes the cake, and it's not even close.
On the roster, you will find two Boise natives; Nick Russell, a 2019 graduate of Bishop Kelly, and Josh Simboli, a 2019 graduate of Timberline.
Both, who had highly successful prep careers in Idaho, are now seniors on the Broncos' cross country and track teams.
"I don't think any of us expected it to blow up the way it did," Simboli said. "For it to go all over Twitter and then people make TikToks about it and all these news articles has been like pretty surreal."
This is not the first year the team has taken part in this idea. It actually started about ten years ago with an idea to take their headshots and team photos, with every member sporting a mustache.
"I'd never even thought of like trying to destroy my roster photo until I got here and the guys were like, 'oh it's a tradition. You have to do it,'" Simboli said.
However, in recent years, that tradition has taken a turn.
"My mom will see this or read about it and say, 'you need to shave,' because she likes when she can see my face," Simboli said. "I guess the mustache and the longish hair don't help that but we'll see, I'm liking it right now. I have no plans of shaving it but who knows, I might get an angry call from mom and might need to shave it off."
Some teammates have already shaved off their mustaches and crazy hairstyles, while some have kept them for the good juju.
Simboli, Russell, and the rest of the Broncos will compete on Friday at the Pacific Invitational.
"We got a really good team this year so were super excited to put ourselves on the map for something other than goofy roster photos," Simboli said.
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