The Water Valley High School Boys and Girls Powerlifting teams recently collected over 200 toys to share with the students of Davidson Elementary School. This morning they were able to give gifts to each member of the PreK, Kindergarten and 1st Grade classes.
The idea was a brain child of Coach Vaughn Daniels as they were preparing for the North Swole Invitational. Teams usually pay an entry fee to cover the costs of the tournament. For this tournament, each lifter was required to bring an age appropriate gift for elementary students in lieu of the entry fee. Coach Daniels enlisted the help of alumni powerlifters to voluntarily judge the invitational to offset some of the tournament costs.
"I’m super proud of our lifters and what they were able to take in from their first meet of the season. We wanted our lifters to have an impact in our community instead just going through the motions at Christmas. It was amazing to see our athletes and the smiles on their faces in response to the kids and how excited the kids were to receive a gift from the “BIG KIDS.” It was awesome to know that our kids might have been that one example of kindness that some of our kids get at Christmas," states Coach Daniels. "Our kids compete each year at the state level, but we are also trying to train our kids in a way that they impact the community in a positive way when their high school days are over. We want them to leave with a little something extra. I asked my lifters to give with a willing heart before we started and by the end they were upset there weren’t anymore gifts."
The powerlifting teams are coached by Vaughn Daniels and Avery Norris. Angie Hodge serves as their meets coordinator and female chaperone.