July 11, 2013

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Unfortunately our video highlights from the event are unavailable due to a technical malfunction.

South Carolina football came together for a one-hour workout at the USC Fieldhouse Thursday night to raise awareness for Pelizaeus Merzbacher Disease (PMD) as the first Uplifting Athletes chapter in the SEC. The Gamecocks welcomed fans and media to the event, which was forced indoors due to inclement weather in Columbia.

Redshirt juniors Jordan Diaz and Connor McLaurin spearheaded the start of the chapter, working with director of football strength and conditioning Joe Connolly to organize the conditioning session. Nearly every Gamecock on the roster turned out for the voluntary workout to raise awareness for the rare disease that affects a cousin of their teammate Devin Potter, a freshman tailback from Granite Falls, N.C.

Uplifting Athletes is a national nonprofit organization aligning college football with rare diseases. Each campus chapter is run by football student-athletes and works to elevate as a national priority a rare disease that has personal meaning to their team. These rare diseases affect less than 200,000 Americans and consequently little attention is paid to them.

For more information on South Carolina’s chapter of Uplifting Athletes, click here.