Club teams PLAY at local school

Jason Halsey had long envisioned his club athletes giving back to the community.

Halsey, UNC sport clubs director, had a problem: He didn’t know how to make that dream a reality.

It wasn’t until he met Nidhi Sachdeva, coordinator of Healthy Carolinians of Orange County, at the Health Promotion Workgroup of the Healthy Carolinians of Orange County program that the idea of PLAY began to take form.

Combining his vision with her resources, Halsey created Preparing Lifelong Active Youth, a program promoting physical activity, using a portion of the Eat Smart, Move More N.C. community grant.

Sachdeva authored a grant proposal to minimize Orange County’s role in making North Carolina rank No. 14 in childhood obesity.

“We just want people to be active throughout the day,” Sachdeva said.

A different club sports team visits all three Orange County middle schools twice a month. The team spends one day going over fundamentals of its sport and another day guiding students in competitions.

“Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive,” Sachdeva said.

The club sport department’s intern, senior Morgan Taylor, oversees PLAY. She traveled with the club basketball team to C.W. Stanford Middle School.

One boy wore all UNC gear on the second day, and a girl exuded confidence after a layup drill.

“She ran up to me, gave me a hug and told me ‘Morgan, I’m so good at this. I’m trying out for the basketball team,’” Taylor said.
James Proffitt, co-president of the men’s club basketball team,
said some kids asked for autographs.

“They just thought it was cool that college basketball players were coming to play with them,” he said.
Rugby, ultimate Frisbee and handball were also popular.

Tiffany Dyer, vice president of the women’s club rugby team, said the students at A.L. Stanback were itching to get active.

“I remember what it was like to be after school, stuck inside when it’s nice outside and you’re just sitting there waiting for your parents to pick you up,” she said.

TJ Herrmann, travel coordinator for men’s club volleyball, said he was impressed by how willing and excited students at Gravelly Hill Middle School were.

“It was really nice to be able to help out and get them out of the library and out of the classroom,” he said.

Club teams will begin going back out to middle schools this month.

Contact the University Editor at university@dailytarheel.com.