The men’s basketball team is not all about dribbling a basketball and shooting three pointers.
Last October, the team and coaches made a visit to Hendrick Children’s Hospital to see some of the patients there. The hospital is located not far from campus and provides care for children ranging from babies to teenagers.
Second-year head coach Joe Golding and the team got to meet several children, all of whom were encouraged as they battle various illnesses and afflictions.
“I think going to see those kids served two purposes,” Golding said. “It helps our guys look outside the box. Sometimes you get comfortable in your situation here. A lot of our guys on the team are spoiled in the sense that they have a scholarship to go to school so sometimes they don’t understand the struggles other people have.”
“It’s also good for the university,” he said. “It’s good for us to be ambassadors and representatives in the community by getting out in the community and being role models for the kids.”
Golding said one young man, who was battling cancer on and off for several years, came to one of the team’s games and got to sit behind the bench as well as go into the locker room.
The team was also supposed to volunteer at Habitat for Humanity but there was a thunderstorm that weekend and the project was cancelled.
“The guys also read at a local elementary school,” Golding said. “Our kids love it. We take them up there right after chapel on Thursdays and each kid has a book that corresponds with their reading level. The guys rotate around the room and let the kids read to them.”
The basketball team are not the only group of Wildcats involved with the community outside of ACU. Members of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee traveled to the Abilene Zoo last semester. They helped set up and decorate shops for the zoo’s annual ‘Boo at the Zoo’ fundraiser.
The ‘Cats assisted local businesses and non-profit organizations at the event by helping them carry in bags of candy, pumpkins and hay bales. These businesses and organizations gave away free candy and treats throughout the zoo to hundreds of kids dressed in costumes, providing an exciting trick-or-treat experience for local Abilene families.
All the money raised went towards operating the zoo.
