Redskins safety Kareem Moore
The Redskins Charitable Foundation is at their awesome work again. This past Thursday, the organization hosted a mini-combine for kids as part of the PLAY 60 Challenge, for 150 students from Washington, D.C., public schools, according to redskins.com.
The PLAY 60 program encourages activity for at least 60 minutes a day for kids and helps schools get health and fitness into their routine. The PLAY 60 Challenge is a combination of programs between the American Heart Association and the Redskins in-school curriculum.
On Thursday, several Redskins players and coaches were on hand to lead the kids through the physical activities including safeties Kareem Moore and Chris Horton, offensive lineman Will Robinson, linebacker Chris Draft, long snapper Nick Sundberg, defensive lineman Trey Jacobs and tight end Logan Paulsen.
Also on hand were head strength and conditioning coach Ray Wright and his staff, including assistants Malcolm Blacken and Chad Englehart, who helped the kids with warm up activities.
“We want energy!” Wright shouted. “Show energy!”
Wright evidently found out that there are elementary schools that are removing physical education from their programs and was surprised.
“It’s a huge mistake,” he said. “Too often kids are inside playing video games. They need to be introduced to games played outside. It builds friendships and it teamwork.”
The two Redskins’ safeties, Kareem Moore and Chris Horton, appeared to have a lot of fun with the kids.
As 20 sixth grade boys and girls ran through an obstacle course on the practice fields at Redskins Park, Moore shouted encouragement to the last group in. The encouragement didn’t erase the requirement for pushups though and he gave them the bad news.
“Now you have to do 20 push-ups,” he instructed the last-place finishers. In his article, Gary Fitzgerald of redskins.com asks, ’20 push-ups?’
“Hey, I’m a football player,” Moore said laughint, “I have to take it hard on them.” Then he turned back to the kids and instructed some more. “Count out loud so everyone can hear you!”
As mentioned before, Chris Horton joined in the fun, helping the kids through some of the exercise stations.
“It’s fun just coming out here and seeing a workout from a kid’s perspective,” Horton said. “You see them get excited and say, ‘I get to work out with Redskins players!’ I think they enjoy it a lot more. Now we have to instill in them that they need to exercise for good health.”
Both players indicated that, as they had grown up, they had experienced competition in sports and physical activity.
Horton, growing up in New Orleans, La. commented, “A lot of guys were older than me and I wanted to play against them football or basketball in the park or in the streets,” he said. “It was just one of those things where you had a good group of friends who always wanted to go outside and not sit inside and waste time.”
Kareem Moore grew up on Okolona, Miss. and admitted to having a bit of a problem with his size.
“I saw everybody out there playing and I wanted to play, too,” the safety said. “Growing up I was a smaller kid and sometimes they wouldn’t let me play with them, but when I did I had so much fun. I loved going out there and competing against the older kids and showing them I was as good as them or even better.”
You have to wonder what some of those kids might be thinking now.
It is appreciable there are elementary schools that are removing physical education from their programs and was surprised.