Kids Clinic allows children to meet football team, show off touchdown celebrations
Central Michigan football head coach John Bonamego described a story said that his son, Gio, gave him a spiderman mask to climb the wall to retrieve a balloon that was floating against the foyer’s ceiling to convey the message that kids look up to football players.
“In a child’s mind, it’s about the uniform,” Bonamego said. “They don’t differentiate between a uniform and a costume. So, these guys are superheroes to young kids.”
About 150 kids got to meet the 2017 CMU football team up close and personal prior to the annual Spring Game.
Children who participated in the annual Kids Clinic had the privilege of touring the locker room, collecting their favorite players’ autographs and participating drills with the football players on the field at Kelly/Shorts Stadium.
This event paired with the Chippewa Kids Club. The Club is a group for children grades eight and below. The free, exclusive club allows members to get involved with CMU Athletics throughout the season with events, games and parties.
Bonamego described the event as a way to give back and attract fans.
“It’s a way for our program and players to engage with the community and give back,” Bonamego said. “It’s become a really popular event and glad it is something that we do. There was a bunch of (kids) out here and it looked like they were having a ball.”
Senior cornerback Josh Cox and sophomore defensive lineman D’Andre Dill agreed that that the Kids Clinic is great to give back to the community.
“It’s great to give back to the kids who care about the game of football,” Cox said. “It’s good to see the role model that you are to kids, being able to work with them and they look up to you.”
Kemeliah Graham brought her children to attend the Kids Clinic. She said that every year, the kids look forward to it and she’s been doing this for the past four seasons.
“We bring the kids out every single year,” Graham said. “They become club members, get in volleyball and basketball games, and get free stuff. The kids already can’t wait to come back next year.”
In the field activities, the football players got to teach children how to catch, juke and throw passes. After catching the ball, kids got to show off their touchdown dance moves and kick field goals.
Junior running back Romello Ross said that they look forward to the Kids Clinic before the Spring Game every year.
“We are really excited,” Ross said. “We are out here giving back to the community and supporting the kids. It’s really special because these kids look up to people in positions like ours.”
The children got five minutes at each station to impress the players and their friends with the best dance moves that they could think of after scoring or completing the activity. Following the event, the kids ran across the field to get a free slice of pizza.
