Gamecocks Giving Back in the Community
Feb. 20, 2018
South Carolina student-athletes put on their “coaching hats” on Saturday, serving as instructors for more than 300 Boy Scouts from around the Midlands at an annual clinic held at the Carolina Volleyball Center. Student-athletes from women’s golf, indoor volleyball, men’s soccer, track & field, women’s swimming and football were on hand to teach the Boy Scouts a little bit about their respective sports.
“The purpose is to give back to the scouts, and we have a lot of different sports represented that they were able to rotate through,” said Megan Stoltzfus, Director of Life Skills for South Carolina Athletics. “I think our student-athletes are having just as much fun as the Boy Scouts. We had more than 60 student-athletes sign up, and we had some that didn’t sign up that heard about it and came out as well.”
“We want to maintain a relationship between the Boy Scouts Council and the Gamecock family,” said David Angle, Assistant Scout Executive for the Indian Water’s Council. “We have a cooperative agreement to participate in at least one function for several sports throughout the course of the year.”
It’s important to expose kids to different kinds of sports.
Megu Seidenberger, Swimming
The Popcorn Sports Clinic allowed scouts who had fundraised by selling more than $650 worth of popcorn to attend the event and went to the South Carolina men’s basketball game on Saturday as well. The Boy Scouts ranged in ages from 6 to 18 years old, and went through basic drills for each of the sports.
“It just feels great to help the community,” said freshman football student-athlete Max Iyama. “When I heard about this, I had to come out.”
“The goal is for them to get active and see all of the different sports,” said Emma Lock, a redshirt sophomore on the indoor volleyball team. “We just wanted to teach them the basics and have some fun. We have a great time with the kids, and they love it, so it’s fun for all of us.”
Giving youngsters the opportunity to learn more about sports to which they may not have a lot of exposure is also a key part of the program.
“I wanted to push athletics for younger kids,” added freshman swimmer Danielle Doennebrink. “It was a huge part of my life growing up, and I hope it will be part of theirs, too.”
“I just want to see kids get involved in a lot of different sports,” said senior swimmer Megu Seidenberger.” Obviously, we’re a water sport, but we wanted to show them that you can do some stuff for swimming on land. It’s important to expose kids to different kinds of sports.”
