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Nick Passarelli, Wally Cirafesi, Kevin Mazur, Kedric Meredith, Brian
Arndt, Mark Whitaker, Scott Charlton and Mike Brewer left
Bloomington-Normal after their morning workout on March 2 and headed
for DeLisle, Miss., 14 hours away, on a Katrina relief effort funded
by the Evangelical Free Church of Bloomington-Normal. Charlton's
mother, Cheryl, is the secretary at the church, and she put the
Redbirds in contact with Pastor Robert Holsinger. "What is amazing
is that these are student-athletes, who have multiple demands on
their time in addition to athletics and academics, and if anyone has
an excuse not to do it, they did," said Holsinger. "But, they
completely went for it and made a difference."
Head coach Denver Johnson didn't have any hesitation about
letting the eight players go.
"When guys, under their own initiative, have an opportunity to be
involved in that type of activity, it's hard not to excuse them from
their offseason responsibilities," Johnson said. "These are quality
young men, and I'm really pleased. In our program, we really stress
giving back and being a quality citizen. Usually we like to have
them stay local, but in a cause as massive as the Hurricane Katrina
relief effort -- something that touched us all -- it's hard to say
no. I'm really proud of these kids."
The Redbird football players were assigned to help rebuild a pair
of buildings at Pass Christian High School.
The first building needed a lot of cleaning with pressure washers
and had a variety of rooms that needed to be boarded up. The
building was being fixed so that the community, which now consists
of 30 percent of its former population, could have a town meeting.
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 The second building needed extensive work, leaving some of the
guys sore. The eight Redbird players broke up concrete slabs in the
old equipment room so plumbing could be added for the new locker
rooms to be built in its place.
"It was crazy being down there," Cirafesi said. "It was kind of
surreal. After seeing everything on TV, even after six months things
are in really bad shape. But, the people were real warm and thankful
for the help. It was a lot of hard work, but it was obviously worth
it."
But it wasn't all work. On Saturday, the Redbirds matched up with
the local high school team for a little game of flag football.
"It wasn't an organized seven-on-seven, but we played a game
against the local high school team," Cirafesi said. "It was pretty
competitive, so we all had a good time."
In addition to playing football, the Redbirds also provided
inspiration for the high school team, which has been depleted from
48 players to 28 due to the effects of the hurricane.
"It was just really sad to hear their stories," Passarelli said.
"What some of those guys have gone through is unbelievable. Some of
them don't even know where their best friends are."
The eight players returned to campus on Sunday night overwhelmed
and appreciative for what they have. The ISU student-athletes hope
to return to the site sometime in May.
[Todd Kober,
assistant athletics director, media relations,
Illinois
State University] |
