CONTACT INFORMATION
Game day experience BACKGROUND
Game Day Experience is a first year project in Mr. Large's Service Learning class at New Palestine High School. It was created by Maximus Gizzi, Jordan Reid, and myself. All three of us are athletes and we are all passionate about our sport and our community. This project allows both of those passions to connect together.
Objectives
The main goal of Game Day Experience is to give children (mainly elementary school age) who need more guidance a chance to spend time with high school mentors who play the sport the child enjoys. It allows the child to experience feeling apart of a team, see the rewards of being a high school athlete, and a chance to be involved in something. It is also a good chance for the high school athletes to connect with children in their community and a chance to build the culture of athletics at New Palestine High School.
Project Pitches
To get this project exposure, we presented it to administrators in the district and to all three elementary staffs in the district. The presentation received positive feedback and many helpful suggestions from administrators and teachers. Teachers play a huge role in this project as they nominate students in their class who they feel would benefit most from this project.
Project Pitch Presentation
Blog #1
Maysn and Brandi's Game Day Experience
On Friday, September 20th Maysn Glesing and Brandi Deckard were the first participants of the Game Day Experience. Both students were announced on the intercom in front of the entire crowd and received Dragon spirit care packages.
Maysn Glesing
Maysn, a 4th grader at Sugar Creek Elementary, decided he wanted to spend his experience with the Dragon football team. Maysn was led around by starting offensive lineman Jacob Brittsan, who was able to spend time with Maysn because he was injured and couldn't play in the football game. Maysn received a tour of Dragon athletic facilities, a tour of the locker room where he met and spent time with all Dragon football players, and was able to stand on the sideline during the game. Maysn had a big smile on his face the entire night and really enjoyed his experience with the Dragons.
Brandi Deckard
Brandi, a 3rd grader at Sugar Creek Elementary, wanted to spend her experience with the Dragon Sideline Cheer squad. Brandi met with the cheerleaders about an hour before kickoff and went through their pre-game routine with them. During the game, Brandi was on the track with the cheerleaders the entire time, spending time with the cheerleaders and cheering on the Dragons in front of the community. Brandi had a special night and the cheerleaders who spent time with her really enjoyed their experience also.
BLOG #2
Kamryn, Cameron, Bryce, and Trevor's Game Day Experience
On Friday, October 4th, 4th graders Kamryn Deckard, Cameron Flores, Trevor Brooks, and 1st grader, Bryce Davis had their Game Day Experiences. The four boys were able to receive a tour of the Dragons' weight room and locker room and meet all of the players. During warmups, the boys threw a football on the field and were able to talk with some coaches. During the game, the boys stood on the sideline and got an up-close view of the action. All boys had a smile on their faces during the entire time.
Max and Chase's Game Day Experience
On Friday, October 11th, Brandywine Elementary students Max Bowman (5th grade) and Chase Smock (4th grade) were able to participate in their Game Day Experiences. Both Max and Chase were a little shy and nervous, but as the night went on they grew more comfortable and came out of their shells. Because of how cold the game was, the boys only stayed until halftime, but in their short time with the team, they had a great time.
BLOG #3
COLE'S GAME DAY EXPERIENCE
On Tuesday, October 29th, Brandywine Elementary 4th grader Cole Roseberry was able to participate in his Dragon Game Day Experience. Cole has Down Syndrome and his teacher and parents thought it would be best if he attended a practice instead of a game. Cole attended practice with his parents and was able to meet players on the football team and hang out with them on the sideline. I think Cole's parents got more joy and appreciation out of the experience than Cole might have been able to. Cole and his parents were very thankful and appreciative for the experience.
blog #4
As the sports seasons change from fall to winter, there are not many high school athletic events happening at New Palestine at the moment, meaning not many Game Day Experiences have occurred. However, we have scheduled 6 Game Day Experiences/practices for winter sports, which are mainly boys' basketball.
To keep myself busy, I designed a schedule poster for the boys' basketball team. I used photoshop and photoshop techniques, with the help of Mr. Large to design it. I featured the three seniors on the team, Maximus Gizzi, Eric Roudebush, and myself as the main focus of the poster.
Blog #5
Since my last blog, I have been able to add some more to the poster. Two sponsors, Bell Mortuary and Moeller Printing, made generous donations to the poster and basketball program. They are featured on the new edition of the posters.
For Game Day Experience, we still have our 6 scheduled boys' basketball experiences set to happen in 2020. I think that the experiences with the basketball games will be more beneficial for the young students as they will be a little closer to the action and will be able to spend more time interacting with the high school athletes. I am really excited to get these winter Game Day Experiences going.
BLOG #6
Game Day Experience has entered into the Winter sports season. Our first basketball Game Day Experience was on Saturday, January 18. Brandywine Elementary 1st-grader Jack Adams was able to spend Game Day with the NPHS Basketball team during their game against Mooresville. Jack received an NPHS spirt pack filled with t-shirts, posters, and a basketball. Jack interacted with the team during their shoot-around before the JV game and then hung out with the team in the locker room and on the bench during the JV game. Before the varsity tip, Jack was recognized in front of the crowd. Jack's mom said he was a little nervous before meeting the players but afterwards he said he had a lot of fun hanging out with the high school basketball guys. Looking forward to having two more Game Day Experiences this weekend with our game against Roncalli!
Blog #7
The Game Day Experience project has been very successful as of late. In one weekend, we had two Game day Experiences including one night where we had a set of brothers. On January 24th, we had two of New Palestine Basketball's biggest fans, Ian and Gavin Uhl join us for a Game Day Experience. They were very enthusiastic and had so much fun hanging out with the team in the locker room and during warm ups. They both received a care package, got recognized in front of the crowd and sat behind the team on the bench. Both the boys and the team enjoyed this night very much.
We also had a Game Day Experience on January 25th, where Brandywine Elementary 1st grader Landon Vaught joined the Dragons Basketball team. Landon was pretty shy at the start, but really opened up as the night went on. Landon received a spirit pack, got recognized in front of the crowd, and even got to shoot baskets on the main court. This experience helped Landon come out of his shell and opened his eyes to the atmosphere of high school sports.
Maximus and I have also started a project called Breakout Box. This is a project where kids have to problem solve in order to open locks and open a Breakout Box. We devise clues to challenge the kids and they work together to solve them. The theme for our Breakout Box clues is Marvel's Avengers. We created about 15 clues that lead to breaking six locks to open a Breakout Box filled with small prizes. We have just now started scheduling with elementary school teachers for their students to participate. We are super excited about this project!
Blog #8
The Breakout Box project is off and running! We were able to do a Breakout Box with 4th graders from Mrs. Purciful's class at New Palestine Elementary. We split the class into two groups of 10 and had one group at a time try to solve the Breakout Box. It took the first group (Team Iron Man) 10 minutes and 30 seconds to solve all of the clues and it took the second group (Team Thor) 13 minutes to solve all of the clues. The kids were super well-behaved and work well together to figure out all of the clues. They were all very enthusiastic about the activity and enjoyed their candy prize for figuring out the locks!
We have been in contact with almost all of the 4th grade teachers in our school district. All of them have been very excited and enthusiastic about our project. This is a great way for the students to work on problem-solving skills, along with cooperation skills. Can't wait to see how many classes get to solve the Marvel Breakout Box!
BLOG #9
I have been insanely busy with Breakout Box projects these last few weeks! It seems like we have been doing a Breakout Box with a different 4th grade class every day. Since the beginning of March, we have done 6 Breakout Boxes at 2 different elementary schools in our district. We have become more and more efficient with out time with each project, and this project has been more rewarding than I would have ever thought. The kids seem to always enjoy working out the clues and problems together and have been super enthusiastic. The best feeling is seeing their excitement as they finally get the box open and get to enjoy the candy prizes.
Some teachers have even been reaching out for us to come back with new clues and problems for their students to solve. This has been a very successful project and I have thoroughly enjoyed it,
As the winter sports have been winding down, so has the Game Day Experience Project. However, we have had some very successful projects as of late. We recently had Joe Barada of Sugar Creek Elementary get a Game Day Experience with the basketball team. Joe's brother, Matthew, plays on the team, so it was very easy to coordinate this project. Joe rode on the bus with the team to a game at Greenwood and sat with the junior varisty team during the varsity game. Joe loved hanging out with the big boys and made fun of his brother Matt quite a lot.
Possibly the best Game Day Experience project was with 2nd grade twins Reid and Holden Norris from Sugar Creek Elementary. These two twins were recommended by their guidance counselor Mrs. Doyle to attend a basketball practice. The boys were very shy at first but really opened up as the practice went on. They both enjoyed the company of the basketball team and embraced all the players. They had such a good time, their mom even posted an update on FaceBook about how much they loved it. This was a very fulfilling feeling reading her post and seeing how much the boys enjoyed it.
Possibly the best Game Day Experience project was with 2nd grade twins Reid and Holden Norris from Sugar Creek Elementary. These two twins were recommended by their guidance counselor Mrs. Doyle to attend a basketball practice. The boys were very shy at first but really opened up as the practice went on. They both enjoyed the company of the basketball team and embraced all the players. They had such a good time, their mom even posted an update on FaceBook about how much they loved it. This was a very fulfilling feeling reading her post and seeing how much the boys enjoyed it.