Plant City High School’s Nov. 11 event got student-athletes on path for engagement.
If you want to build a good relationship between hight schoolers and a community at large, taking a page from Plant City High School’s book is a good place to start.
I went to the school Nov. 11 for its Winter Sports Night, a free informational event for the public that gave Plant Citians direct face time with the athletes. They even went into the bleachers at one point to introduce themselves to attendees, a gesture you don’t see every day — even if it was built into the program.
Girls basketball head coach Danny McIntyre, who organized the event, told me the goal was to help the school’s student-athletes get more engaged within the community and become good citizens. There are plenty of examples of school sports teams getting involved within their communities through fundraisers and other events, so it’s the “good citizens” part that sticks out to me most. High school is supposed to prepare us for adulthood, among other things, and learning about your community and how it works is an important part of that.
These students are approaching the age where they’re able to vote, join the military, live as legal adults and so much more. Not everyone is lucky enough to have the proper guidance for navigating this new territory, and the last thing you want is to see young people get apathetic when they have the potential to make a difference. Anything you can do to help them be positive forces where they live will go a long way.
I know this wasn’t a job fair or engagement workshop or anything like that. It was a night for student-athletes and coaches to introduce themselves to people and show Plant City what they do through demonstrations. But I think anyone who considers themselves active participants in the community knows that big things don’t happen overnight and they all tend to start with something small — a thought, a reaction or a chance encounter. This is one of those stepping stones.
And it works both ways. Maybe now, having met the athletes, some folks around town will be more inclined to support those programs in more ways than just game attendance. Maybe they’ll link up with the teams for community projects and work together to make Plant City better.
It all has to start somewhere. For the Raiders, it was last Saturday night.
I look forward to seeing PCHS repeat the event for its spring and fall sports teams. The Plant City community can thrive when local high schoolers want to make a positive impact here.
