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Teaching something not found in a playbook

Dragon footballers gets lesson in ‘service’

  • Jaden Pruitt carries an arm load of brush from the property of Paul Bice on Ridgeview Drive.

  • from left, Randy McKamey, Dawson Woodward, Dylan Spurlock, Dylan Stoutamire, Jaden Pruitt, and William Taylor.

There were no diagrams of plays to go through, no blocking assignments discussed, no drills to run.

This isn’t about football, and yet it is about football.

A couple of weeks ago Clinton High School Head Football Coach Randy McKamey took some of his Dragons to an exercise in respect with a lesson on service and just what a difference that can make in a person’s life.

That person was Paul Bice.

McKamey said he’s known Mr. Bice, “A very long time.”

He knows Mr. Bice well enough to know he’s going through a difficult time.

Paul Bice, a retired contractor, a lifetime resident of Clinton, lost his wife of 67 years May 18, 2019, when she passed away.

“The team just thought Mr. Bice could use some extra care and attention,” McKamey said.

Weeds were tackled, shrubs and grass cut down to size and a citizen of the community was shown he is not alone.

And for a football team on the brink of great things, coming together to help another person is proof positive nobody goes through life without a little help once in a while.

Call it team building.

“It’s something we want to do,” McKamey said. “We want people in the community, who may need a little help with getting in fire wood, lawn mowing, brush clean up, minor home repairs … Contact us and we’ll get a group of guys together and see what we can do.”

No, it’s blocking and tackling.

It goes way beyond that.

Because helping others is a good way to show your commitment to not only a school and community, but to yourself.

Anyone needing a little help may contact McKamey at rmckamey@acs.ac

“It’s something we’d like to do as a team to work within our community,” McKamey said.