Badger football players play and mentor younger students

BONNERS FERRY — Thursdays at Boundary County Elementary school are a highlight, not just because it is the end of the week — it's when the big kids come to visit.

Bonners Ferry High School football players have been visiting Boundary County Elementary Schools during lunch and recess every Thursday since the second week of school. The program started with Valley View Elementary, but now includes Naples and Mt. Hall.

Cleo Henslee, senior, running back and linebacker for the Badgers, told the Bonners Ferry Herald that last year football players were only able to make one elementary school visit.

“[This year we] decided to come out and be mentors to the kids,” Henslee said.

After gaining approval from the school principals, members of the Badger football team have visited schools every Thursday for lunch and recess.

Trey Bateman, junior and lineman for the Badger football, said he has fond memories of high schoolers coming to his elementary school.

“It was great and I want to give that experience to younger kids,” he said between football throws at recess.

“It is so much fun to see how excited they are when we visit,” said Donny Riess, senior and lineman.

Riess said it is all about giving back to the community. He said he visits the elementary school because he always thinks about how would he have felt as an elementary student if he’d seen high schoolers come to visit.

“I feel like I’m doing something special for the community,” he said.

When the football players walk the halls, they are greeted with kids asking for high fives and end up offering them to a whole class walking by. Everywhere they go, groups of kids call out the players by name.

“Dakota, sit by me,” said one wanting to sit by Dakota Heller, junior running back and linebacker for the Badgers.

Another called for Kolton Rude, junior lineman, to sit down and pick up in conversation from the last visit.

The kids and athletes talk like they are old friends.

When asked what they talk about at lunch, a group of fifth grade boys said they talk about “respect” and “football” every Thursday.

At recess, the football players teach kids how to throw and receive a football. They also play basketball, competitive four square games and climb the monkey bars.

One fifth grade boy told the Herald that he has more fun at recess when the football players come.

Melissa Bateman, teacher at VVE, said it is amazing to see the students have role models to look up to. She added that the students get excited when the players come.

Kylee Guthrie, principal from Mt. Hall Elementary, said Badger football players that attended Mt. Hall in elementary school have been returning to the school to meet with elementary students.

“Blake Rice had contacted me asking if five players could come up to Mt. Hall. I was thrilled that these players wanted to take their time to mentor younger students,” Guthrie said.

On the football players first visit, you would have thought that celebrities had arrived — the students were ecstatic, she said.

She said students have learned sportsmanship and some basic skills and have also enjoyed seeing how far the high schoolers can throw a football.

“What an awesome opportunity for our younger students to have these examples of hard work and dedication,” she said.

Michelle Halter, principal at Valley View Elementary said it is so amazing for the players to visit the school.

“It matters to these kids to have someone to look up to and aspire to be,” she said. “The football players are kind, caring and gentle with the kids. This is the kind of thing students at Valley View need.”

Halter added that she hopes this program continues on and that high school athletes will be a common sight at the elementary level. Interactions with older athletes and younger students encourages movement and health, she said.

Robin Merrifield, principal at Naples Elementary, said Oct. 6 was the first time football players visited Naples Elementary. She said the players had a great connection with the kids and it reminded her of the big brother program.

Unlike at the other schools, many of the football players visiting Naples did not go to school there, but they wanted to make sure every school was covered.

Players taught students good sportsman-like behavior and how to safely play a contact sport without making contact at school, Merrifield said.

Merrifield and others have commented that there has been an increase in student engagement at recess.

The football players plan to visit schools the rest of the season.