Bay Area Kids Experience 'A Day in Green and Gold'
PHOTO GALLERY
By TOM ZEBOLD
USF Senior Writer
TAMPA, APRIL 6, 2018 – Kids from Boys & Girls Clubs all over the Bay Area got the true student-athlete experience during USF's third annual "A Day in Green and Gold, Presented by Florida Blue" on Thursday.
USF's action-packed community service event welcomed nearly 130 elementary school children from five different Boys & Girls Clubs to the Bulls' athletic district. Kids got to go through student-athletes' entire routine, which included strength and conditioning tutorials, getting taped up in the training room and competing in soccer games at Corbett Stadium.
"It's been a great tradition to celebrate our staff and our student-athletes spending time with some great youth from our community," Director of Athletics
Mark Harlan said. "I always have this vision. If we can show these kids this facility and this campus, they will be future Bulls, that's the dream."
An important part of the dream involved inspiring kids to reach for the stars in an academic sense. Groups got to learn about college majors, how to manage time and what it takes to reach the graduation finish line.
"Today we were academic advisors," USF women's basketball post player Alyssa Rader said. "We helped them pick majors, schedule out their day as if it was ours, gave them some graduation tips and went on and graduated them. They enjoyed it."
Prior to learning about college academics, the Boys & Girls Club got to sing "Happy Birthday" to Rocky and the fun continued during the pregame portion of the event. Members of strength and conditioning staff coached kids through football drills at the Morsani Complex while other groups prepared for soccer action in the training room.
"It's great coming out here and playing with the kids," said Darnell Salomon, a star receiver on the football team. "I'm reminiscing back in my days watching everybody. I see some future football players, really that's what I see."
Once it was game time, each kid had a blast running through the high-five tunnel of Bulls on the berm at Corbett Stadium, where their names were announced over the loudspeaker. Student-athletes also took part in the soccer action, which brought a smile to USF men's team midfielder Stephen Rudderham's face.
"It's just fun to give back to the kids around the community here," Rudderham said.
"A Day in Green and Gold" is something USF looks forward to each year and Harlan hopes each kid from the Boys & Girls Club thoroughly enjoyed the student-athlete experience.
"What we always try to remind them, myself or staff, is that it's an opportunity for them today to just learn about being on a campus and what our student-athletes go through. Listen and have fun," Harlan said.
About USF Athletics
USF Athletics sponsors 19 varsity men's and women's teams that compete in 11 different sports, 18 at the NCAA Division I level in the American Athletic Conference. The Bulls' athletic program celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2015, having begun with a men's soccer contest in 1965. Nearly 500 student-athletes train and compete in the athletic district located on the east end of the campus in Tampa, Fla. The Bulls have claimed 12 American Athletic Conference team titles since joining the conference in 2013, including four in 2016-17, and own 109 conference championships overall. Ten USF programs reached national post-season competition in the 2016-17 season and nine were ranked in the Top 25 nationally. The Bulls posted a program-record 86 percent Graduation Success Rate (2016) in the last reporting, logged an annual department grade-point average over a 3.0 for the second straight year and saw 106 student-athletes earn their degree during the 2016-17 academic period.
– #GoBulls –
