Athletes ‘crushing’ community service

UCF players set goal of completing 5,000 hours by end of spring term

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS — UCF tight end Anthony Roberson smiles too much to be a shark.

On a field behind the Lillie H. Green Community Center, that’s exactly the role the redshirt junior finds himself playing. He couldn’t be happier. Two days before he caught the first touchdown pass of his college career Saturday at Tulane, Roberson is engrossed in a tag game called “Sharks and Minnows” with children from the Boys & Girls Club.

While Roberson reaches to touch as many kids (the minnows) as he can as they run past him, the youths strive to elude him. It’s a difficult task because they naturally want to gravitate toward him.

“This is the age where they listen the most, where they take us as studentathletes coming to see them personal,” Roberson said. “They’re excited to work with us.”

In September, Roberson asked the community on Twitter to help UCF athletes reach 5,000 community service hours by the end of the spring semester.

Last week, the Knights passed the 2,500-hour mark.

“We’re crushing it,” Roberson said.

Athletes from all 16 NCAA sports offered by UCF have volunteered, Roberson said. They have gone to Boys & Girls Clubs, visited sick children, spent time in schools and fed the homeless.

During this service opportunity, Roberson was joined by football teammates Jordan Johnson and Randy Charlton, basketball player Yuat Alok and softball players Justene Molina, Gianna Mancha, AyJay Mulholland and Madisyn Davis.

A junior outfielder, Mulholland never had played bumper pool until a 9-year-old girl named Honesty — clad in a pink shirt with the word “Goals” written three times across the front — challenged her.

“We know at UCF that we’re super blessed with all these opportunities and advantages that people don’t have,” Mulholland said. “If we have that opportunity, why not?”

Austin Long, service director of this chapter of the Boys & Girls Club in Seminole County, said the children want to impress the athletes, but most of all they are overjoyed with the increased attention. On some days, the athletes help them do homework; on others, they do arts and crafts together. This time, their play room is outside.

“The athletes get a lot out of it too,” Long said.

For about 90 minutes, the Knights kept the youths moving. Some kids ran pass patterns, vainly attempting to track long passes. (“You’ve got to keep running,” Roberson advised an 8-year-old boy named Antonio after one ball hit the ground.) They played flag football, and Johnson, the Knights’ 320-pound starting center, amused with his moves on the basketball court.

When Johnson launched an air ball, the children laughed even more.

“When I was their age and I was going to a program similar to this, it was a lot of fun having people come back to the community and say, ‘What’s up?’ ” Johnson said. “Somebody did me a favor, and now I’m returning the favor.”

It started largely with Roberson. He said his parents, Anthony Sr. and Harriet, took him to various community projects as a child in Richmond, Virginia.

He initially felt they were a waste of time. His young mind did not understand the good that was being done, but as he grew he recognized the benefits.

“When I realized people are really hurting ... and all the stuff I was doing back home was actually helping people, I fell in love with it,” Roberson said.

Still in their formative years, these children could grow in any number of ways. How they turn out remains to be determined. Maybe some will develop into college athletes, but if not the gap between their two worlds got smaller.

“[As athletes,] you’ve got people cheering for you, but when you’re out here cheering for these kids and they feel like superstars, that feels the same as coming out that tunnel [at Spectrum Stadium],” Roberson said.