After about six inches of fresh, heavy snow fell overnight in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, one high school football coach decided to switch up his team’s practice.
Brian DeLallo is the coach of the Bethel Park High School football team. He was sipping his coffee that snowy morning when he had an idea. In past years, the team helped their community by shoveling driveways and walkways. The next morning seemed like a good opportunity to skip their scheduled weight room workout and hit the streets instead!
“Find an elderly or disabled neighbor and shovel their driveway,” the coach tweeted to his team. Don’t accept any money – that’s our Monday workout.”
Coach DeLallo’s team did not disappoint! The teen boys did as they were told, knocking on doors and offering their snow removal services free of charge.
“We would have been in the weight room doing squats, and bench press, and power cleans,”said the coach. Instead, they got a real-life workout that also helped others!
“I feel great about it and think we all feel great about it,”said team captain Gavin Moul. “It’s not only helping them, but it’s helping us to become a better team.â€
Gavin added that their neighbors were surprised that the teens didn’t ask for money in return for shoveling their long driveways and walkways. The whole team felt great about being able to donate their time to help their community, and the coach was thrilled that his idea was so well received.
“You get a lot more out of this than ‘did you bench press 300 pounds today?’ This is really cool,” he said. “It’s a chance to connect with the community and you don’t get many of those, so this is nice.”
Thanks to this coach’s spur-of-the-moment decision, the boys helped dozens of neighbors dig out from the snowstorm. They might not have remembered yet another day at the gym, but the feeling of helping their community is something they’ll never forget.
Don’t forget to share this story to celebrate this team’s hard work!
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