GALLERY
Academics in Motion
June 13, 2009
Bronx, N.Y. - On Saturday, over 50 high school football players worked out on Fordham University's Murphy Field under the guidance of the Rams' football coaches, led by head coach Tom Masella, as Fordham hosted members of the New York City Police Department Football League in an event co-sponsored by Academics in Action (AIM).
The day started with the players being run through various stretching drills by Fordham head strength and conditioning coach Ted Perlak, which ended with Fordham assistant coach Malik Hall teaching the players the way Fordham ends its stretching session, with special jumping jacks as the players spell out Fordham.
The group was then broken up by position for positional drills. Fordham assistant coaches Jonathan Wholley and Keith Comeforo joined Masella, Hall and Perlak in guiding the players through position-specific maneuvers.
"We had a great time hosting the Police Department Football League and helping the guys become better football players and, more importantly, better students," said Masella. "The players were so eager to learn and really soaked in a lot of information."
After a BBQ lunch, the players were addressed by Jim Presbrey, a Co-Founder of AIM who currently serves as Vice President and Secretary. He educated the players on the importance of academics, running the students through the AIM program, a program that, according to the group's website, "uses sports to level the playing field between those schools and communities that "have" and those that "have not". The AIM program implements a multi-faceted approach to school-based athletic programs in order to raise the academic performance expectations of schools, teams and their students with measurable results."
AIM is a not-for-profit organization that has developed a youth development program that uses athletics as a conduit to greater personal and academic performance on and off the field for children in lower socio-economic neighborhoods.
Following the AIM instruction, the players returned to the practice field for some 7-on-7 competition.
The group already has plans to return to the Rose Hill campus in September as plans are in the works for Fordham to host a clinic for the New York City Police Department Football League and AIM prior to the Liberty Cup game against Columbia on September 19th.
"We had a great time and I'm sure the players benefitted from the experience", said Presbrey. "We thank Fordham for its hospitality and look forward to coming back on September 19th for the Liberty Cup game."
