Highland football players make a difference in community during recent snowstorm

When the Highland community — like the rest of the metro-east — was hit with heavy snow, high winds and freezing temperatures during the week of Feb. 15, tasks such as cleaning off a driveway became an impossible one for many of the city’s elderly residents.

On Feb. 16, Highland High School was off for a snow day and the Bulldogs football team wanted to find a way to help the community.

Bulldogs coach Jimmy Warnecke and his assistants reached out to the players via a group text and suggested going to the homes of area elderly residents and shoveling off their driveways and walkways — for free.

The players available to help jumped at the idea, and, on that day, the HHS football program had 20 plus team members going to homes in town and digging out driveways.

“For us, we try to do several different projects throughout the year which is a core belief of our program, and because of COVID, we weren’t able to do a lot of stuff so it was kind of a golden opportunity,” Warnecke said. “So, I reached out to the boys via group text and I told them to get permission from their parents (to do it).

“We could have been busy three days shoveling all the driveways (that day) and we ended up doing as many driveways as we could from (9 a.m. to midnight) that day and it was a good deal.”

Warnecke’s mother-in-law, Judy Boos, provided a huge assist by getting on Facebook and reaching out to area residents who needed help with their driveways.

“My mother-in-law got on Facebook and said, ‘Hey anybody know of any handicapped or elderly that could use the help (with their driveways)?’ And we got a list of names and we tried to get to as many people as we could,” Warnecke said.

Highland senior running back Logan Chandler, senior lineman Sam Buck, and senior Liam Gallagher were team captains for the project.

Warnecke, along with his three sons, and assistant coaches Austin Welz and Riley Lietzenberg, and the players met at Walmart at 8:30 a.m. Feb. 16. Then, Warnecke and his assistants and the players were out cleaning local driveways by 9 a.m.

“I had a list of addresses, and we had four different groups We met at Walmart and I gave a list of addresses to each group at the time and we kind of went at it,” Warnecke said. “We’ve got young strapping boys and for us we kind of got a workout in, so that was our workout.”

Chandler said he and the rest players were excited about helping the community.

“I kind of jumped right on it,” Chandler said. “I had plenty of (free) time since school was out so I just thought it’s a good thing for the community and I might as well go out and help. Coach Warnecke sent us a text and it just kind of happened and a few of us said yeah that’s a good idea and it just kind grew from there.”

Welcome diversion

Handling a snow shoveling project at this time was a welcome change of pace for Chandler and the players, who have lost activities such as serving at the Ronald McDonald House and the annual team bonding trip to Illinois College this year due to the constraints of COVID-19 restrictions in the state.

“It’s definitely a team-bonding moment (for us), and with COVID and all that we really haven’t had a chance to have team bonding moments,” Chandler said. “Usually, we go to Illinois College and we spend four days up there and after that we would have as much of the team bonding we needed, and we really feel like a brotherhood. I feel like this (project) really brought us together.”

Highland players clear more than 35 driveways

According to Warnecke, the Bulldogs cleared more than 35 driveways in three hours.

Residents were surprised and thrilled to have their driveways shoveled by the players and tried to donate money to them. However, Chandler said they refused the money because the work was about being a good neighbor to residents who needed help.

“Most of them wanted to give out money, but we didn’t want to take their money; we just wanted it to be a special thing for the community,” Chandler said.

‘Trying to raise these boys the right way’

Warnecke echoed Chandler’s sentiments.

“We’re trying to raise these boys the right way, and winning gets a lot of people into your culture. But I think we’re trying to get better people and better young men (in the process) and that’s the thing we want as a whole coaching staff,” Warnecke said.

Due to the project’s success, Warnecke said the team and coaches are seriously considering doing it again in the future.