On The Path

Reading More Than Playbooks

New Albany football, cheerleading teams give back each fall

For the past 11 years, a special event has taken place at New Albany-Plain Local Schools. The gesture might be simple, but its impact is profound.

Each fall, senior players on the New Albany High School football team take an hour of their day each week to travel to the Early Learning Center. There, in groups of two or three, they are designated a kindergarten class to read to once a week for several weeks.

The simple act of standing in front of the class and reading a picture book is enough to create a strong connection between the seniors and kindergarteners.

“It’s a full circle moment – it bridges our community together because our oldest learners come back to encourage and be with our younger learners and a lot of these boys remember when they were read to,” says educational assistant Denise Johnson, who heads up the Eagles Give Back Reading Program. “It’s something that our seniors look forward to every single year.”

Each time they meet, the players read one to two books to the class, take questions from the students and leave them with a gift. For the last session, the players handed out stickers and their own custom playing cards.

“They really look up to these kids so a lot of our kids will go to the football games now to see their player,” Johnson says. “(For) these boys, it’s the highlight of their senior year to be able to come back and have kids be excited to see

New Albany High School cheerleader Sydney Hutton reads a picture book to a preschool classroom at the New Albany Early Learning Center last fall as part of the Eagles Give Back reading program.

Photo courtesy of Lisa Hinson New Albany High School alumni Wesley Ferguson and Nick Clemons read to kindergarteners in fall 2013, during the earlier years of the Eagles Give Back reading program which started in 2010.

you and just be a part of their kindergarten experience.”

For kindergarteners, seemingly small interactions with the players can mean a lot. After the final reading session of last fall, a boy started off the discussion by asking the players, “Do you like apples?” That same student showed up after a game to ask quarterback Brock Kidwell for a photo.

“It really makes you feel good, especially when they’re all happy,” Kidwell says. “It’s basically like helping someone else out, so it really shows you that being nice and everything really goes a long way.”

Early Learning Center Principal Michelle Levero says her students see the high school students as superstars. After spending time with the players at the beginning of the year, that bond and excitement remain in the students’ minds.

“The kids will talk about it the rest of the year,” Levero says.

Eleven years ago, the program was created by the current head football coach, Mark Mueller, and a kindergarten intervention specialist, Karen Lindell. Lindell’s son was a senior on the football team, and Miller had the idea of coming back to the place where it all started.

Though NAPLS kindergarten, the place where it all started, is no longer taught in the same building as when the seniors were in kindergarten, the sentiment is the same.

“The boys are always lovely when they come over,” Johnson says. “Our staff at the ELC looks forward to this every year. Each classroom, before their first visit, makes a banner for (the players) that hangs in the high school caf-

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The New Albany football team finished the 2021 regular season with a 10-0 record, just the third undefeated season in school history, and won the Ohio Capital Conference – Ohio Division title with a 5-0 record. They went on to a 12-1 overall record, after falling to top-seeded Upper Arlington in a Division I regional semifinal game.

eteria. It’s something that all of us look forward to.”

Cheering on the Next Generation of Eagles

The NAHS cheerleading team gives back in a similar fashion, as senior team members spend time reading to preschool classrooms during the fall.

Following the popularity of the football players’ kindergarten visits, the cheerleading team began to coordinate preschool trips three years ago.

“It was a huge success,” says cheerleading coach Andrea McCullough. “(The preschoolers) remember it for years. It is really such a great part of the community.”

McCullough says it’s common for high school alumni of the program to hold on to copies of the playing cards they give to the younger students.

“It’s something special and memorable for them,” she says. “It unites the grades and brings the schools together in a very special way.”

Johnson says that when the football players visit the kindergarten classroom, they get just as much as they give.

“From what the head coach has told me, this is – out of everything that happens to them during their season and their year – this is the thing that they most look forward to, is coming back and reading to the kindergarteners,” Johnson says. “Plus, it kind of helps grow our football program, because these kids think that these players are giants among men.”

Claire Miller is the assistant editor. Feedback is welcome at cmiller@ cityscenemediagroup.com.

Kindergarten students elbow bump with high school senior football players, Brock Kidwell (left) and Aaron Troutman, after they spent time in their Early Learning Center classroom reading books and answering questions from the class.

New Albany High School senior Brock Kidwell, with teammates Aaron Troutman (middle) and Jadyn Garnes (right), reads to a class of kindergarteners as part of the Eagles Give Back reading program.