Longhorns take time on opening game day to visit with elementary kids

link Courtesy Photo: Logan third graders enjoy a visit from Logan High football team members before the opening game of the season.

Special to QCS

Senior Class Reporter, Logan High School

First game of the season for the Logan Longhorns, and a lot is going through the minds of the football players. Thinking about play after play, and how they plan on beating the Tatum Coyotes. Even then, with everything going on in their head, that does not stop them from taking the time out of their busy day to stop and talk to the elementary kids, not knowing how much they are actually influencing them.

When you are a senior athlete in high school you take it upon yourself to become a role model. When talking to the football seniors, Wyatt Strand, Larramy Roberts, Trey Daniels, Jesse Sanchez and Wesley Gudgell, I was intrigued with the responses I received.

Question 1: What does it mean to you to be a role model for younger kids?

•Wyatt Strand: “ To me, being a role model means, that knowing everything you have worked for is paying off and that younger kids actually look up to me and want to do what I do.”

•Larramy Roberts: “It means that you have a great impact on others and you influence how they act in the future.”

Question 2: What encourages you to be a role model?

•Wesley Gudgell: “When I was younger, I looked up to the football players and they always treated me well and I decided that when I got older I was going to be just like them. Now that I am older I try to influence younger kids who look up to me to do the same thing.

•Larramy Roberts: “When I was younger I would see the football boys walking around wearing their jerseys, talking to younger kids which encouraged me to be like them.

When I was finished talking to the football players, I decided to ask the Logan Municipal Schools principal, Mr. Terry what he thinks about the high school athletes and students taking the time to talk to the younger kids and he said, “I think it is a great thing for athletes and high school students to take the time to talk to younger students because the younger kids are greatly influenced by the older kids. Being a small school we have the privilege that most schools do not have of being so close, and when older students talk to the younger ones it leaves a great impression on them.”