By Mark Carpenter-
The future of Manchester football has been murky the last few months but last week, a group of Greyhounds were in the middle of some good news for a change. When the members of the Manchester Junior High football squad were summoned to the school on the evening of Wednesday, June 17, none of them really knew why. When they entered the building and a pair of classrooms where Chromebooks were set up on socially distanced desks, rumors abounded, including that President Trump was going to speak to them all.
Well, that didn’t turn out to be true, and it wouldn’t be long until smiles showed up on the young men’s faces as they discovered just who was joining them in the pre-planned but hard-to-keep secret Zoom meeting. As their guest’s face popped up on the screen, one of the young men blurted out, “Oh wow, that’s J.J. Watt!”
It was Houston Texans’ All-Pro defensive lineman J.J. Watt who was online to introduce himself and make a major announcement to benefit the MJH football program.
“I have my own charity and what my charity does is we provide after-school athletic opportunities for middle school kids,” watt explained to the youngsters in the meeting. “I understand that Manchester Junior High up there in Ohio could be in some need of some uniforms so my charity is going to provide some brand new uniforms for your football team which we hope you will take pride in. I know what it feels like to put on a brand new uniform and I hope you guys get to have that feeling this year and I hope we all get to play football.”
“My personal motto is ‘Dream big, work hard’, and I once told my teacher in middle school that I wanted to play in the NFL. Whatever your dreams are, be ready to work hard and encourage each other. You can do anything you want in the world and together, you can all make great things happen.”
After his opening remarks, Watt opened the meeting to questions from the team members, where the first young man asked him if he could go play for the Saints and another asked how many time he had broken his nose in action. When asked who the best player he ever played against was, Watt quickly responded that Tom Brady was the greatest player of all-time. When asked what it was like to walk on the field for an NFL game, Watt simply said,” It’s the best, there’s nothing like it. I’m very lucky that is my job.”
The J.J. Watt Foundation will be donating $4,089.55 to the MJH football program for the purchase of new jerseys, pants, and helmets, and the whole process began with the hard work of a number of people, including MLSD Board member Troy Thatcher.
“It was clear that we needed some additional funding for football down here,” said Thatcher. “I heard about the J.J. Watt Foundation which is specifically for junior high sports and we applied for football in an online application in March. The Foundation then started corresponding with us and all of a sudden one day, they said they were going to help us out. There were economic requirements and we had to present a budget and have referral letters and in all we ended up with 25 new uniforms. Ironically, we dealt with Watt’s mother who helps run the foundation and it was really neat and the way things have been going in Manchester, this is kind of surreal. They were just an awesome group to work with.”
“This is absolutely huge for our program, especially under all the circumstances that we’ve been under,” said Nick Neria, who last season coached the MJH football squad while serving as a coordinator for the high school team. “To have a big boost of energy to come to us like this, it’s just huge.”
“I hope you guys have a great season and enjoy your new uniforms and I wish you all the best and hope you all go on to great things in life,” Watt concluded the meeting by saying.
More information on the Foundation can be found at jjwfoundation.org.