Working To Play Before They Hit Practice Field, Rogers High Football Players Donate Labor To A Good Cause

The expectations placed on Rogers High School football players extend beyond the gridiron and classroom. They flow through the community as well.

One week before the start of the 1997 season, some 45 Pirate players spent a Saturday volunteering with Habitat for Humanity, cleaning up four lots on which housing for low-income families will be built.

After the eight-hour project was done, they helped a woman move into a house across the street from the vacant lots. They mowed her lawn and weeded the yard for a finishing touch.

“They really did an excellent job,” said Habitat for Humanity spokesperson Dia Hadley. “Not to be discounted is the good will in the community. They were so generous when they helped a neighbor as well.”

Habitat for Humanity relies on volunteer groups for help, which reduces the cost of the low-income housing by nearly a third, Hadley said. Having a football team contribute is unusual.

But not at Rogers. Football is more than just a game to coach Dave Pomante. It is an extension of everyday living.

“We are teaching them principles for life,” he said. “If coaches do it right, they help players become better citizens.”

Pomante insists that his football players complete a community service project before each season. It’s something he’s been requiring the last five of his six years at Rogers.

“They will not play a game until they do,” he said. “If you want something, you have to give something. It’s a basic life principle.

“Another big reason is I am trying to establish my captains as leaders,” he said.

When Pomante selects team captains each year, part of their responsibility is to choose and implement the project.

“It’s a traditional thing to see if we can be organized by ourselves,” said two-way lineman Justin Ulmer, who came up with the Habitat for Humanity idea. “And it shows the younger kids about respect.”

Once, players organized a car wash to benefit the Spokane Project and a Spokane Food Bank drive.

In 1994, the team cleaned up Market Street in Hillyard.

The next year, Pirate players participated in KXLY’s Paint Your Heart Out. Last year, the team cleaned the Hillyard Museum.

“We always try to do it in the Hillyard area because Rogers is in that community,” said linebacker Chris Patterson, another of eight Pirate football captains. “Our contribution to the community is a positive thing.”

Other captains are two-way linemen Eric Rushing and Marshall Sims, tight end-linebacker Andy Bayne, linebacker Eric Owens, receiver-defensive back-quarterback Jeff Mace and running back Mike Dorton.

They organized the labor parties that worked from 8 a.m. to noon and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Aug. 23, weeding the lots that will become part of the 51 homes Habitat will build here in the next 10 years.

“I can tell you they needed cleanup for more than a month,” said Hadley. “Nothing could compete with the sweep the players did.”

Pomante’s goal in coaching is not winning and losing as much as it is getting kids to feel good about themselves and for the community to feel good about the kids.

“I want people to see what I see, not the perceptions,” he said.

But he also knows that this act of self-discipline and service can be beneficial on the field.

The Pirates, whose captains are the most experienced, will be young this year.

“I think we’re plenty talented enough to compete,” said Pomante. “The key to our success is where we’re going to be mentally.”

Last year’s quarterback, Mace, will give way to junior Brett Oglesbee, because of his value as a receiver and defensive back.

Dorton, who had 546 yards in his last two games, was second in the league in rushing with over 1,100 yards. He’ll be backed by sophomore Ryan Anstrom.

Seniors Kris Clarke, Jason Gregerson, and Max DeVore, juniors Justin Battle, Danny Crowley, Adam Hooper, and Mike Brooks and sophomore Chris Parratt are other backfield-wide receiver and defensive prospects.

Sam Wells returns to tight end and linebacker after spending a year in Florida.

Other offensive and defensive linemen are John Tannahill, Rick Flinn, Allen Eveland, Jason Turner, Ben Norby, Adam Lindsey and Jerry Lowell.

Junior Matt Moran is a linebacker prospect. Jeremy Davenport, Ross Rother and Barry Warren are after defensive back spots.

Pomante was raised in a blue collar atmosphere in Michigan. Sports, he said, kept him out of trouble.

He dreamed of playing for the University of Michigan and the Detroit Lions. He wound up at Whitworth College, married his wife Julie and after a stint in California, began teaching and coaching at Rogers.

“This is where I wanted to be,” he said. “I felt the kids were similar in background to what I was used to.”

He tells them that no matter how good they think they are, someone else is better.

Each year, the football team visits the Shriners Hospital to learn that no matter how bad the players think they have it, others have it worse.

The experiences are part of the total Pirate football package. Pomante and his players would have it no other way.

“If life had gone like I thought, I would have played for the Wolverines and Lions,” said Pomante. “It didn’t go that way, but ended up better.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos (1 Color)