Students on Bethel Park High School’s football team are never encouraged to skip practice.
Unless it’s for a good cause.
That’s why coach Brian DeLallo told the teens at the Pittsburgh high school that practice was canceled in order for them to help out their neighbors.
dOn a normal day, these students will meet in the workout room around 9 a.m.
But school was closed because of a big snowstorm that hit the area.
So, DeLallo canceled practice as well. He then instructed his team to find an elderly or disabled neighbor and offer to shovel their driveway without accepting money.
Due to expected severe weather, Monday’s weightlifting workout has been cancelled. Find an elderly or disabled neighbor and shovel their driveway. Don’t accept any money – that’s our Monday workout.
— Brian DeLallo (@BDeLallo) January 16, 2022
“It’s great to see the kids buy-in and get out there,” DeLallo said. “They’ll shovel all morning and then, hopefully, they’ll go sled riding in the afternoon and get to be kids.”
The Black Hawk football team said they were excited about the task their coach had given them.
They said they had fun being out in the community together offering to help out their neighbors.
They still got some physical activity in and also got to do something nice.
One homeowner said they would make a donation to the football as a thank-you for their services.
“It’s about community. We talk about in our program all the time, so this is another chance we have to go out and interact with our community in a positive way and show them that they’re important to us,” DeLallo said.
But DeLallo said this wasn’t his idea.
His predecessor, former head coach Jeff Metheny, began the tradition of having students shovel snow for neighbors about 20 years ago.
“Jeff had always had our kids do this,” DeLallo said. “Any time we had a snow day and school was canceled, he had the kids go out and shovel driveways for people in the community who were elderly or who were disabled or otherwise could not shovel their own driveways. So this is something we’ve been doing for a long time. Definitely not my idea. I learned it from Jeff and we’ve just carried on this tradition.”
This received much more attention than we ever expected. I must give any credit for the idea to Jeff Metheny, who was Head Football Coach at Bethel Park for 25 years before me. We are simply carrying on 1 of the many great traditions he established. Thanks, Coach Metheny! https://t.co/LEnwMbcvPr
— Brian DeLallo (@BDeLallo) January 18, 2022
One student alone said that he shoveled about four driveways that did with his friend. His friend, David Shelpman, did another two driveways on his own.
The two boys were out there shoveling driveways for between five and seven hours.
“I definitely always do feel good about being able to help others out, makes me feel like a part of something bigger than myself,” Shelpman said.
DeLallo also likes the fact that his team gets to interact with the community while they are shoveling snow.
It helps the team and school drum up support.
“This was a good way to kind of get them face to face with their neighbors, doing something that gives back to a community that is so supportive of our program,” DeLallo added. “It’s really nice to be able to do that.”
DeLallo says that helping their neighbors was a lot more rewarding to the team than lifting weights or squatting.
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