Football Positively Impacts Community Again

PHILADELPHIA - While the Temple Football team provides its fans with much to cheer about on the field, what they are accomplishing off the field may be even more impressive. After all their countless hours in the classroom and around the football facility, the players still take the time to give back to those who are in need. The Temple football team has done a wide range of service from raising awareness for social and health issues, as well as supporting and educating their community.

Temple is holding a blood drive next week in support of one of their own, equipment manager Kane Ivers-Osthus. Kane has been battling leukemia since the start of the season, and if you have read anything about him already, you know that he is the embodiment of "Temple Tuff". Kane has since been placed in remission, and is hoping to return to the team in the near future. There are many others who have been in the situation that Kane has been in, and they all need your help.

Giving back is important to the Temple football community, and it is something that has happened a lot. Every spring the football team hosts a bone marrow registry drive, and over the years that has resulted in more than 1,000 people registering. Temple partners with Be The Match, which is operated by the National Marrow Donor Program, the largest and most diverse marrow registry in the world. Also, in the spring, the football team raises awareness against sexual violence by participating in WalkTU. Formerly known as Walk a Mile in Her Shoes, WalkTU, consists of a march down through campus.

The Temple football team also puts a great effort into supporting its fellow classmates, neighbors, and youth in the community. Just hours following a Saturday morning spring practice, members from the team linked up with the Philadelphia Fire Department and installed smoke alarms in the homes' of residents in the area. After taking a break from educating the residents from fire preventions, the players took the time to throw the football around with some of the kids in the neighborhood. The team also helped out their more immediate community on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, when the team went around the city doing tasks like cleaning, painting, and working with kids. At the start of last school year, the football team helped incoming freshman move into their dorms. There were red football jerseys everywhere you looked outside of Peabody Hall, as the players helped their new classmates unload their cars and carry their belongings.

Of course, there are times when the players get to teach others about what they know best, that is playing football. In 2016, the team hosted a youth football camp for kids in grades K-8 at the practice facility Edberg Olson Hall. Led by the coaches and players, the kids learned proper tackling techniques, throwing mechanics, and other football skills. Maybe the most impressive work done to date by the Temple football team was over the spring when head coach Geoff Collins and eight players went to Japan to help grow the exposure of American football. The players chosen were based on exceptional academic performance, and the entire trip was about much more than just football. What started as a trip for Collins to simply teach better tackling techniques turned it a real movement for collegiate sports in Japan. Unlike in America, Japanese students pay to play sports in college, so this trip was an effort to shed light an intercollegiate athletic structure. The players obviously stuck out in the crowd there, but they embraced it and enjoyed every second.

Please do not hesitate to participate in the blood drive hosted by Temple football on November 12th from 11am-4pm at Edberg Olson Hall. Go to redcross.org and type in the code "El Diablos Army" to sign up for the drive.

Temple University Athletics

Football Positively Impacts Community Again

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