There are a lot of reasons for younger kids to look up to the players on Hanceville’s football team. They recently completed a 10-0 regular season, showed they had one of the most potent rushing attacks in the state and held opponents to a little under 12 points a game on defense.

And that short list doesn’t even include anything they’ve done off the field — until now.

In October, the Bulldogs used their “celebrity status” as football players to help earn money for Hanceville Elementary’s Jump Rope for Heart fundraising program.

In order to give the young students more of an incentive to participate, Tammy Griffith, a P.E. teacher at Hanceville Elementary, came up with the idea for any kid who turned in at least $40 of donations to get the honor of sliming the Bulldogs’ football player of their choice.

She tossed the idea to coach Danny Miller, who then discussed it with the team. It didn’t take long for the players to agree to the proposition.  

“Those little kids at our school look up to the football players,” running back Diamond Simmons said. “Everything we do, they follow us. There were a lot of kids saying, ‘Ooh, I can’t wait to slime you.’ I joked with coach Miller like, ‘I don’t know if we can go through with this.’”

The ploy most certainly worked as the school wound up raising a grand total of $1,352.16, a whopping $550 more than they ended up with last year. All of the money went directly to the American Heart Association.

Griffith firmly believes the team’s involvement had a direct correlation to the far-improved donation total.

“I just know we wouldn’t have raised the money if the football players hadn’t volunteers to be slimed,” she said. “I truly believe that’s why we raised over our limit.”

When it came time to actually be slimed, the players stuck to their word and endured the cold, green, pancake-mix-like ooze. No matter how uncomfortable and “nasty” it might have been — Simmons said he threw away the clothes he wore that day — they didn’t mind it at all because of how beneficial it was for the fundraiser.

“It was worth it, no doubt,” Simmons said. “I love making little kids happy. A lot of kids look up to me and this whole team. I’m just trying to be a good role model.”

Lance Twitty agreed with his teammate.

“I still have slime on my clothes,” the tight end said. “It was fun, though. It was for a good cause.”

The fun didn’t end there, though. Another incentive included the opportunity to climb aboard the Games2U truck, a fully equipped vehicle with plenty of screens for video games, with the Hanceville players.

“You wouldn’t believe how much it meant to sit between two football players and play Xbox,” Griffith said.

Simmons said he enjoyed playing with the kids and noted how much things have changed since he was the same age as the kids he played video games alongside.

“We didn’t have those (Games2U) when I was in elementary school,” he said. “We played with tennis balls. That’s all we played with.”

Most people only worry about what the players accomplish on the football field, but Simmons said he and his teammates are aware of just how many young kids pay attention to their off-field actions as well.

“I know kids are looking up to us,” he said. “So as a team, we need to watch ourselves and do the right things.”

Miller is obviously the one shouldered with the task of turning these boys into better football players — and men — and he said it wasn’t much of a surprise for his athletes to agree to be slimed for a good cause.

“That’s part of what we try to talk to those kids about — getting involved in things in the community and that are beneficial to the school,” Miller said. “Our kids have been really good about that.”

Rob Ketcham can be reached at 256-734-2131, ext. 257 or at robk@cullmantimes.com.