Pitt State Helps Kick - Off the - Shoals championship reading initiative - In alabama!

The Pitt State Football team started off their Friday morning in here Alabama, by attending two different elementary schools. It’s all a part of the “Shoals Championship Reading Initiative” and for Director of Marketing and Community Engagement for Athletics, Emily Moses knows the players were excited to be able to participate in an event like this and were humbled by the response they got from the students. Emily Moses-“You now our football team is blessed because not only do they have such great community support in Pittsburg Kansas but they are very lucky cause they get to come to communities like this in Florence and have the same community support, especially from these elementary kids. It’s been wonderful for them and they were so excited to be here today.” Weeden Elementary School Principle Chris Westbrook understands that special events like the Shoals Championship Reading Initiative really help to keep kids on track. Chris Westbrook-“Kids need a hook to stay in school and unfortunately reading or math, don’t always get it done but when they see these athletes, in order to get to the level of competition where they’ve been, or where they are, they got to have the academics to back it up. So that’s exciting for our kids to see.” As for the Pitt State Players themselves, they read some books to the kids, handed out some Pitt State posters, tackled questions from the students and overall had a great experience. Andrew Castaneda-“Yeah, they were pretty excited I guess they were looking forward to this all week and everything, questions and what’s it take to be a football player, what characteristics, leadership.” Jon Thomas-“It’s a lot of fun you know, and these kids have a ton of energy and so you know, it makes you smile, gets you fired up and really makes me appreciate you know, those kids looking up to me and to the rest of the players and you know just happy to be here and cheering us on, it’s a great feeling.”