CRESTVIEW — Clete Rogers lunged for the ball with an exaggerated grunt.
“You’re too fast,” said Rogers, a varsity football player for Crestview High School, as he retrieved the big green ball.
Six-year-old Wyatt Brown stood on the 30-yard line, waiting for Rogers to roll it back to him.
Rogers sent it back with a word of encouragement.
“Give this one a whack, hard as you can, all right?” he said.
Brown ran towards the ball again with even more fervor than before.
The air was chilly but still. Lights illuminated the field just like they did for Friday night football.
But during Thursday’s Reach Your Goals with Reading night, students of all ages gathered on the turf field to play together.
Older students read to younger ones on the sidelines as volunteers handed out free books, balls and t-shirts. Volunteers handed out hot dogs and hot chocolate at the concession stand. There were no points scored, but plenty of memories made.
Kristi Barker, director of student services, said Crestview held its first Reach Your Goals with Reading night last year as a way to involve the public in celebrating the new turf field.
“We thought it was important for the community to feel like this was something to be celebrated and proud of,” she said.
“We feel like it’s a good opportunity for the high school students to be positive influences for the younger students that come. When the kids see that reading is something that even the big kids can do, sometimes it gives them a little bit more motivation to keep at it when it’s hard.”
Each elementary student got to take home a free book, courtesy of Scholastic, and a ball donated by Hedstrom. MBD Sports and Mid Ohio Graphics sponsored free t-shirts for attendees.
Lisa Brown, a math teacher at Crestview High School, watched from the other side of the field as Rogers and other members of the football team passed a plastic football with her son Wyatt and daughter Evie.
“It’s gonna sound super cheesy, but my heart is gonna explode,” she said. “To see the kindness of my high schoolers playing with my little ones — my heart is glowing right now.
“I did not know so many of those football boys were so good with little ones,” she added.
Nikki Burgess, mother to a high school football player and two Crestview Elementary students, said her younger children felt a sense of pride being allowed to play on the football field with Crestview’s fall athletes.
“They think they’re big stuff out there. They look up to these kids,” she said.
“My kids come every week and they watch their brother play football. They watch this team out on the field. So for them to be a part of it and to be out here with them is just really cool.”
Rogers said he enjoyed seeing the community come together.
“It’s really nice having my team out here, being around the kids, hanging out, having a good time,” he said.
