Feeling the Spirit

If you’ve been through the car rider line at several elementary schools in the West Ashley community lately you may have been greeted by some new friendly faces when dropping your child off at the school.
Members of the West Ashley High School athletic department have been taking student-athletes to area elementary schools to greet students as they get out of their vehicles or get off of the school bus. So far this year, they have visited Drayton Hall Elementary, Oakland Elementary, and St. Andrew’s School of Math & Science. “It was a great experience because we got the chance to interact with younger kids in the community,” says volleyball player Megan Clark.
The program was started last year by WAHS Athletic Director Richard Luden and West Ashley Track & Field Coach Doug O’Donald, who decided to take football players to visit many elementary schools within District 10. They wanted to promote WAHS and to encourage the student-athletes to be productive members of their team and their community. This year volleyball players and cheerleaders have also taken part in the program.
“The West Ashley players involved have really come out of their shells and enjoyed making friends and taking pictures with the other students,” says O’Donald. “During our visit to Oakland Elementary the players were given doughnuts and then had the opportunity to sit and eat breakfast with some of the early arrival students.”
By participating in this program, WAHS aims to support its feeder schools and to make sure that the elementary school students and their parents look forward to attending West Ashley High in the future. They want to do their part to bring the West Ashley community together. “When I was a kid West Ashley was a very close knit community and I’d like to bring some of that back,” says Luden.
Each time the student-athletes visit a particular school they are split into two groups: one group goes to the car rider line and one goes to the bus loop. The student-athletes in the car rider line open car doors so that students can quickly unload, help the elementary school students put on their book bags, and assist in any other way that they can. The student-athletes who go to the bus loop greet the students and give them high fives as they get off the bus.
Last year at Orange Grove, the football players were able to be a part of the morning news broadcast hosted by their students. According to O’Donald, many parents and teachers have commented on how great it is to see the older students help the younger ones and how this is helping to build a better sense of community.
“I think it’s important because it allows the younger students the chance to look up to the older student-athletes,” says Luden. “It also has the reverse effect, in that the student-athletes look forward to interacting with the younger kids.”