Norman North and Norman high schools’ football teams decided to spend a day helping out their communities after storm damage during the Fourth of July weekend.
Norman suffered from severe weather conditions over the holiday weekend, including winds up to 90 mph, contributing to power outages, damage and debris across the city.
Norman North and Norman High were coming off a nine-day dead period, meaning no team workouts, and independently organized efforts to help others during the first day back rather than practicing.
‘Showing up’
Photo courtesy of Norman Communications.
Norman North head coach Justin Jones said he noticed the damage while driving around with his wife as they returned from vacation after the dead period.
“As we got back into town, the storm was just hitting, really, as I pulled in my driveway," Jones said. “So once the storm passed, we got into the car and started driving around and saw the damage, especially the trees and the amount of trees that had fallen and caused chaos, especially on the west side of Norman, and we went to Brookhaven, where a large number of our players reside out there on the west side of Norman.”
Jones said there was a practice set for the next day, but after driving around the city, the team changed plans.
“That's really where my mind started rolling,” Jones said. “My wife and I were talking … and started thinking about (how) we had practice the next morning, our first day back from dead week, and so as soon as I got home, just sent out a message to our guys that said that we weren't going to work out. But instead, we would start a community service, so that's what we did. … It was pretty awesome, pretty cool for our guys to give back to the community.”
They went around with chainsaws, cutting tree limbs and moving debris , according to Jones. He noted the team’s help relates to the program’s mission.
“Our vision for our program is develop quality young men to be champions in life and use football as a platform to do that,” Jones said. “Those things are just words on a wall unless every opportunity you get to prove what your true vision is, (you) live that out.
“We want there to be some substance to what we do, whether that's helping in a natural disaster … , or if that's helping our Special Olympians here at our school, or that's helping our faculty move classrooms. It's showing up when we're needed.”
‘An opportunity to give back’
Photo courtesy of NPS Communications.
Norman High’s players were eager to help clean storm damage when presented with the opportunity, according to Scott Hennigan, outside linebackers and team life coach.
“One of the things about this team is there's always a willingness,” Hennigan said. “If the guys are available, if they don't have a job and they're working a job, they're up here, and we don't have to pull teeth to get guys to volunteer. It's just their nature and the culture that we have here.”
Hennigan added that head coach Rocky Martin was the one to organize the team’s efforts.
“The reason this got started was Coach Martin; he said, ‘Hey, let's let's do this,’” Hennigan said. “We didn't have power at the high school for like three days, so we wanted to do something to help out the community, knowing there's a bunch of other people that are having some serious issues because of the storm.”
Norman High senior wide receiver London Herbin said that not only did he not have power at his house but a big tree fell in his backyard. Even though he dealt with his own troubles, Herbin still helped others.
“I was also going through the same thing, but as much as I was going through it, I could also help out,” Herbin said.
While the teams did not organize their efforts in tandem, they both acted on their character.
“We talk about character development a lot,” Jones said. “And then when you get an opportunity to give back, I think it's important that you pause what you're doing, and you do that.”
This story was edited by Audrey McClour.
