Mohammed Diakite, Darius Patterson, Patrick Henry, Bode St. Marie, Hayden Teska, Jacob Grimes, Dom Carraciola, Elijah Bennett, and Colton McCartney complete community service by volunteering at a basketball practice for the Special Olympics.
Written By: Rachael Cameron
Some people may think that a sports team’s offseason is a break from the competition and the large time commitment that comes with actively playing games and competing in tournaments. However, the Seton Hill Football team has been proving this offseason that they remain devoted to their teammates and communities through an internal competition being run by the coaching staff.
The traditional team was split into eight subteams, of roughly ten or eleven players, which compete in a point system. Team 7 Captain, Ben Zavatchan, stated that the service “takes multiple areas of our lives and turns it into competition.”
According to Defensive Coordinator and Liaison for Community Service Coach Kevin May, the competition is meant to be “all encompassing.” He continued saying, “We’re just trying to instill more competition and that ‘refuse to lose’ mindset in our team in general… We sat down as coaches and thought of what might make a well-rounded player here?”
Within the competition, players can lose or receive points based on their attendance, how well they did in practices, their grades, Starfish reports from professors, showing up to other Seton Hill sporting events, and, perhaps most notably, their acts of community service.
The football team members have been partaking in community service both for the Seton Hill community and the surrounding Greensburg community due to this competition. Some of the service work they have done includes working with food pantries, animal rescues, Habitat for Humanity, and even the Special Olympics.
At the time of this article being written, Coach Kevin May estimates that the team has completed 1500 hours of community service in the Spring 2025 semester solely within this competition. Despite doing a similar community service system in a pre
vious offseason, May says that the difference this year comes from giving players “the option to go out and make their own community service.” He elaborated saying, “we give them the option to go to an event, like events already set up through me or Amanda (DeWitt, Seton Hill’s Director of Service Experience)… and they get a certain amount of points, but if they go find their own service, then they get more points.”
“Almost any time you do community service for the first time, it’s because you have to for some reason. Rarely do people, especially college kids, want to go to community service, but once they do the first one and they see the impact, that’s what gets them coming back,” May stated.
Additionally, it seems that this community service is benefiting not only the communities but also the players. Football player, Colton McCartney, said, “Being able to plug in and give back here in Greensburg has been a highlight of my spring semester thus far… Service always makes me feel good, but that’s not what it’s about. I just love hearing stories from people who normally do not get a chance to share their stories, or knowing that something I did that cost me nothing really meant something to someone who needed it.” Similarly, Ben Zavatchan shared, “Service makes me feel human and gives me an appreciation for life. Every service experience is different, and you take something different away from each one, but, for me, I always gain an appreciation for the things around me.”