SPORTS STORIES:
SPORTS INFORMATION—2009
SPARTANS READY TO GIVE BACK TO THE COMMUNITY TOMORROW
CLEVELAND, OH (September 24, 2009) - The kids are coming. That’s what Case Western Reserve University student-athletes will be relaying to each other in the hallways and out on Van Horn Field in front of the Veale Center Friday. The kids they will be referring to are Cleveland Metropolitan School District elementary students.
Early recruiting? No. The Spartans will be hosting them for the third consecutive year for a Sports Clinic in conjunction with the University’s seventh annual Case For Community Day. This year’s campus wide open volunteer registration filled up in less than a week.
CLICK HERE to watch a video produced for the University's 2007-08 Annual Report which featured the Sports Clinic and letters kids wrote after attending.
“Everybody has fun, both the kids and our athletes,” said senior linebacker and Case Association of Student Athletes (CASA) Community Service Chair Lee Sasala. “There are some teams like track and field and cross country that will have a combined 100 or so volunteers alone.”
An estimated 200 representatives from the 19 varsity sports teams will be in attendance to welcome 250 children from Michael R. White, Oxford, Buckeye-Woodland, Daniel E. Morgan, and Mary E. Buthan elementary (Grades K-8) schools.
“I think our student-athletes act as role models,” Sasala explained. “Hopefully the children look up to them and want to be where they are at some day. I think it’s also nice having them on site so they get the feel of what a college campus is like.”
The day will begin with complementary slices of pizza and subs from Case Western Reserve Athletic Department marketing partners Rascal House Pizza and Quiznos Subs, both located in University Circle.
Then after a brief welcome to campus from former student-athlete and current assistant men’s basketball coach A.J. Curry, the youngsters will begin six stations of sports skills [basketball, football, soccer, track and field and volleyball]
Curry attended Benjamin Franklin, Forest Hill Parkway Academy, Gracemount and Robert K. Fulton elementary schools, Whitney Young Middle School and is a 2003 graduate of John F. Kennedy High school. He graduated from Case Western Reserve in 2008 with a degree in business management/information systems. Curry currently works at the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center as a program analyst.
“I'm a product of the Cleveland Public School System,” said Curry. “I came up under the same circumstances and experiencing the same difficulties as these kids and I want to show them that their life goals are achievable if they make positive choices. If I made it, they can too."
After learning from Case Western Reserve All-Americans and Academic All-Americans as well as the No. 10-ranked Case Western Reserve football team, the children will be brought into the field house for team pictures, medallions provided by the University’s Center for Community Partnerships and draw strong backpacks courtesy of CASA.
For the sixth straight year, the Case Western Reserve men’s basketball team will participate off campus as a team. All 21 members, including coaching staff, will travel down Chester Avenue to East 97th street in the Fairfax neighborhood of Cleveland. The Spartans will be heading up a large scale landscaping project.
“It's easy to see how big of a difference the groups we work with for Case for Community Day make in the Cleveland community,” said sophomore forward Allen Mallory, who is heading up the team’s participation Friday. “It is a great feeling to know that we are making a contribution to their efforts.”
ABOUT CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY … Case is among the nation's leading research institutions. Founded in 1826 and shaped by the unique merger of the Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve University, Case is distinguished by its strengths in education, research, service, and experiential learning. Located in Cleveland, Case offers nationally recognized programs in the Arts and Sciences, Dental Medicine, Engineering, Law, Management, Medicine, Nursing, and Social Work. http://www.case.edu.