Clinic gives exposure to football for kids often left on the sidelines
Cal offensive lineman Matthew Cindric is heading into his sixth and final season with the Bears. He already has won his last offseason in Berkeley.
On July 15 at Memorial Stadium, Cindric, linebacker Myles Williams and about three dozen of their teammates took part in the Golden Buddies Football Clinic. Special Olympics kids and those without intellectual disabilities, ages 6-13, participated in football drills for approximately 2 ½ hours.
“Football is often an exclusive sport, so we’re trying to make it more accessible to everybody,”
Cindric said in an interview with The Chronicle in Las Vegas at the Pac-12 Football Media Day on Friday.
Cindric helped put on a similar event when he was at Skyline High School in Sammamish, Wash. A serious arm injury forced Cindric to miss the final six Cal games last season. When he decided in January that he would return for a sixth season, the thought of a Golden Buddies clinic took hold.
“I wanted to do something, give back to the community, if I was going to come back,” Cindric said.
Cindric credited the Cameron Institute, which is designed to help Cal student-athletes in career development, community engagement and leadership, with a large assist in putting on Golden Buddies.
“That’s why I love Cal,” Cindric said. “There is more to it than just football.”
Cindric hopes Williams, a redshirt sophomore, will be able to keep Golden Buddies going in the years to come. Both Cindric and Williams appreciated the help they got from their teammates.
“It’s pretty cool when your teammates are willing to support you and support the community like that,” Cindric said.
After Cindric spoke with The Chronicle on Friday, he related the Golden Buddies story during Cal’s news conference. Pac-12 Network’s Yogi Roth then asked Cindric if any of the children had said something memorable to him after the clinic ended.
“I had a kid say, ‘I don’t want to leave,’ ” Cindric said. “That was maybe the cutest thing a kid has ever said to me. I think he had a good time. I hope most of the kids felt that way.”