In our sports-obsessed society, too often it’s the misadventures and misdeeds of jocks that normally get barrels of ink. So it’s nice when you get a chance to write about athletes, particularly younger ones, doing something selfless for the less fortunate among us. In this case, Garden City’s Brendan Schick, a junior offensive lineman that plays for the Chaminade High School football team, is the impetus behind a recent food drive. Schick, whose father is friends with a number of homeless people in New York City, wound up having one of them pass away a week before Chaminade’s Oct. 25 game. Schick the younger then got nearly every member of his squad to bring in at least one food item, while cash donated by other players was used to purchase more canned food to donate. He even reached out to teammates on both junior varsity and varsity squads and coaches on both teams to donate to the cause. In the end, everything that the Chaminade team collected was given to Hempstead’s Mary Brennan Interfaith Nutrition Network (INN) at a time of the year when so many families go hungry. It winds up being that kind of heart-warming holiday story that scores extra points in this day and age of the entitled athlete.
—Dave Gil de Rubio
