Dan Sabers (center) works with Mason Greer (left) and Mohamed Traore while painting a hallway at City High. Brian Ray/SourceMedia Group News

By Jami Brinton, SourceMedia Group News

IOWA CITY – The defending state high school football champions spent Thursday morning sprucing up City High School by moving desks, dusting off old trophies, painting hallway walls, and de-nailing boards that used to comprise the center circle of the old gymnasium floor.“Better than football practice” said a few of the players while working.

This project is becoming somewhat of an annual tradition for the football team.

“We’re just giving back to the school,” said Dan Sabers, head football coach for Class 4A state champion City High. “It’s a budget-crunching time and stuff so last year we started to realize that I have a lot of power so we’re just trying to use it.”

Most of the T-shirts worn by the dozens of football players helping school custodians were soaked through with perspiration as they labored to complete their assigned tasks.

“It’s a lot of hard work,” said Jake Calcotte, senior offensive lineman.

George Volk, head custodian for City High, said that the football team’s efforts help his ten-person staff tremendously, especially when it comes to painting walls.

“We don’t have time to do them with budget cuts,” he said. “One of the things they’ve cut back on in the district is painting. So, all of this helps out a lot.”

Volk estimates the football team’s few hours of labor saves the school a couple thousand dollars.

The service project also cultivates a new-found respect between football players and custodians.

“I work all of the football games, home games,” Volk said. “So, I know what they do up to the season…and [this] is probably the first chance for a lot of them to see what we do.”

Several football players said they now appreciate the hard work of the custodial staff to make their school something the students can be proud of.

“You see a lot of work that goes in every day that we just kind of take for granted and now we’re finally going to do it,” said Steve Ferentz, a junior tight end for the Little Hawks.

While the players enjoyed taking a break from football practice, Sabers said his team is ready to defend their state champion title during the upcoming football season.