Jason Garrett’s charity awards scholarships to Westhill players
The Westhill football team picked up a big win last week.
Though the victory did not come on the football field, it is the type of win that could effect change at Westhill for years to come.
Westhill took first place in the Jason Garrett Starfish Charities “Make a Difference Challenge” which rewards schools with college scholarships for up to five players.
“It is important for kids to look outside themselves,” said Garrett, the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. “The kids have embraced this program and it has been really fun to see kids get involved in their communities like this. We tried different scholarship ideas over the years but nothing really stuck. This idea is working because the kids are actually doing what they write about.”
Teams are eligible to compete for the scholarships if they attended Garrett and AthLife’s 1-day free, non-contact football camp at Princeton University, held for the last 16 years.
Garrett said the camp is as much about learning life skills as it is about football.
While at the camp, players get to not only play football but they walk the Princeton campus and even sit in McCosh Hall, the oldest lecture hall on the venerable campus.
The scholarship contest has been run the last three years for camp participants.
Three Westhill players won the first prize this year, a $5,000 scholarship for each student.
AJ Laccona, Daniel Brennan and Dennis LoDolce earned the award by submitting a jointly-written essay to the organization detailing a plan to make
their school a better place by implementing a program to put recycling bins in every classroom at Westhill.
“College is so expensive these days and I know how much that is going to help,” Brennan said. “It means a lot to us. Westhill is such a diverse community and to get that for our school really helps everyone out and gives us pride as a school.”
Monday, the players gathered with coaches, parents and supporters at Rockrimmon Country Club for the 6th Peter Cernansky Memorial Golf Tournament, dinner and silent auction.
Cernansky was a former Westhill quarterback killed in a longboarding accident his freshman year of college.
The event benefits the AthLife Foundation academic counseling programs, “Purple PACT” at Westhill and also helped initiate a similar effort at Stamford High called “Knight Life.”
Though the Westhill players put a lot of effort into the proposal, it was still a shock when they found out they took home first prize.
“It is very thoughtful. I think when you do something for the community, you shouldn’t be rewarded but getting the scholarship is very nice,” LoDolce said. “Honestly, my heart dropped because I didn’t expect to win. It is such a big thing that I would expect some other big football school to win it. My stomach felt weird, it was such a great feeling getting picked.”
The essay by the three introduced a plan to put recycling containers in every classroom at Westhill.
The money from the cans and bottles collected would then be funneled back into a mentoring program created by Westhill football players a year ago as their proposal to the foundation.
“It leaped off the page at us when we read it,” Garrett said. “To me, their plan was so comprehensive and well thought out and very practical. Taking the proceeds from the recycling to fund the mentoring is great synergy and you. could tell the things in the essay would come alive.”
Jason Garrett Starfish Charities, run by Jason and his wife Brill, picked Westhill’s proposal as its first unanimous winner of the first-place prize in part because the idea this year directly tied in with last year’s mentoring proposal.
Brill Garrett said lessons on the football field can always be applied to life and she feels the Westhill essay was the perfect example of that.
“Their proposal really brought a smile to your face when you read it,” Brill Garrett said. “That was really exciting for us because they were embracing the challenge. One of the great things about football is the discipline and physical rigors of it. You can take all the things you learn in football and apply them to other areas of your life. That is what we see with the teams participating in this program.”
That proposal last year finished in second place, earning the four football players (Noah Klein, Noodles Metayer, Nick Nunes and SaQuan Kelly) involved in its creation $2,500 scholarships each.
The mentoring program set up by virtue of last year’s essay, was to provide guidance from current Westhill football players to students in Stamford middle schools.
“When we can make the kids better and give the kids something to do like the mentoring program, it helps them grow as people, it helps them become better citizens and it helps in the school environment,” Westhill football coach Frank Marcucio said. “There is a problem and we need to better bridge the eighth graders into the high schools. There is no question, the transition is horrid and it is very difficult for many of the kids.”
Eight times this school year, Westhill football players traveled to Cloonan Middle School, discussing a different topic each session.
The program was funded by private donations this time around but the team wanted to be able to fund the mentoring program with less help, hence the recycling program.
“It’s great. I thought Westhill wasn’t known at all. Football is so big in Florida and Texas and for us to be known like that means a lot,” Laccona said. “Our essay was about starting a recycling program and putting bins in every classroom and using that money for the mentoring program we run at the middle school. It’s great we will get to do that.”
Helping the players develop focused plans for mentoring days was Jeff Jecrois, the Stamford Public Education Foundation (SPEF) community outreach coordinator and the Purple PACT academic support.
Jecrois, who graduated from Westhill in 2011, said he wished there was a mentoring program in place when he was younger.
“It benefits both the middle school kids and the high school kids. It is a great opportunity for kids to learn from kids. I think it was amazing seeing high school kids interact with the middle school kids,” Jecrois said. “In high school, all I thought about was sports and I never thought about going to college. I didn’t know how important it was to be a student and an athlete combined. Looking back, I wish there was programs like this when I was at Westhill and in middle school.”
It is one of Westhill football’s biggest wins and an honor well deserved.