EQUIPPED FOR FUN
Super Bowl party big hit with kids at A Children’s Place
TROY, N.Y. » Football players from Lansingburgh High School visited A Child’s Place at Unity House Friday to celebrate Sunday’s Super Bowl.
Ten members of the Lansingburgh Knights came equipped with a helmet, shoulder pads, and football and spent the morning interacting with the preschool classes.
Walthemar Muniz, ‘20, Chase Alonzo, ‘ 20, Kaleb Tucker, ‘ 21,
Izayah Bashford, ‘21, Daniel Riley, ‘21, Anthony Gavin, ‘21, Jacob Lapham, ‘20, Scott Teta, ‘20, vinny Tario, ‘20, and Andrew Lyman, ‘ 22, worked closely with the preschoolers all morning. To show their “team spirit,” the children wore helmets and carried shakers and pom-poms they had created in class.
With everyone gathered in the hallways, the players began with leading the children through some of their stretching exercises, encouraging the children to count to 10 with them as they held each stretch. Then they did some running drills, giving each
child a turn to run with a football.
Then the children lined up for a chance to try on a real set of shoulder pads and a helmet.
The players talked to the children as they tried on the items, asking them questions and reassuring them if they got scared. The general consensus seemed to be that the shoulder pads were “heavy,” and the helmet was “big.”
The “Super Bowl Party” at A Children’s Place is a long- standing tradition that the Unity House school has with Lansingburgh High School. According to Knights coach Jeff Pasinella, it’s an event the entire team looks forward to.
“They start asking about it as soon as we get into practices,” Pasinella said. “They’re a great bunch of kids. This is a ‘proud coach moment’ - you watch them succeed on the field, and then you come here and see them and you smile.”
“I enjoy talking to kids and making them happy,” Muniz said about why he was excited to be there.
“When kids are younger, they can be scared of big kids like us,” explained Alonzo. “I feel like this helps them to not be so scared, and it introduces them to sports early.”
After the main activities were done, the children returned to their classrooms. The football players “pushed into” some of the classes, where they spent the rest of the morning continuing to interact with the children. They read books and played classroom games, and even ate lunch together.
“They also turn into human jungle gyms at that point, because the kids will climb all over them,” added Pasinella.
Of course, the day wasn’t complete without an answer to the all-important question: Who are you rooting for in Sunday’s game pitting the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers?
“I’m a Bears fan, so I’m going to root for the 49ers,” Pasinella said. “But it would be nice to see Andy Reid (the Chiefs’ coach) get a Super Bowl win.”