By Chase Porter
Staff Writer
Photo courtesy of Sharon Mankin
Over the past few years the Coppell varsity basketball team has not only been competing for a championship but they have also been participating in service projects all over the Metroplex.
On Dec. 3, the boys varsity basketball team sacrificed their usual practice time on Saturday morning to work for a better cause. Teaming up with the Habitat for Humanity program, the boys built and repaired damaged houses and much more.
“The team did a lot of manual labor,” coach Brad Chasteen said. “They did some landscaping, spackling, painting, repairing dry walls and a good amount of trash detail around the area.”
The Cowboys traveled over to a low-income area near Fair Park to try and help out in any way they could. In addition to doing construction work and other work the team met two women that really touched the hearts of the team.
“Meeting those two ladies and seeing how Habitat for Humanity has helped them was a great experience,” senior captain Austin Mankin said. “We also took some pictures with the two ladies so that we could remember the good that we did.”
The two ladies Mankin is referencing live in the Fair Park area and both have homes built completely by Habitat for Humanity volunteers. The team agrees with Mankin that it was one of the best experiences of the day because they got to see the reward of giving.
In the past the team has done service projects such as last year when the team went to the Dallas Life Shelter. There they served food to homeless people and those in need.
“Going to the Dallas Life Shelter was an incredible experience because we really got to the happiness on the faces of the people serving,” senior captain Jett Raines said. “Doing the Habitat for Humanity project this year was a much different experience but it was an equally rewarding experience.”
Not only did the team touch the hearts of the people they were working for they also became closer as a team. On the basketball court they can only bond so much so for them to get out off of the hard wood and out of their element the whole team agrees that it was a great bonding experience.
“Working together to repair the houses made us bond even more,” senior captain Warren Oishi said. “We really learned a lot more about each other and improved our team chemistry.”
The team plans on completing at least one or two more projects such as this in the future. For now though the team is focusing on protecting its 11- 1 record with the regular season in full swing.
“Basketball is just a game that we like to play,” Mankin said, “but giving back to the community and helping people out who are in need is more important and doing things like the Habitat for Humanity project was a great opportunity for us to experience that first hand.”
