Newton football players follow coach’s Twitter lead to help shovel community

WICHITA, Kan. (Catch it Kansas) - It’s the start of a new culture within the Newton football program. Just a few weeks into the hire of new head football coach Greg Slade and he’s already rallying his troops for some community service.

“He put out on Twitter for us to come out here and give back to the community and shovel some snow, whether that be driveways, sidewalks or stairs here,” said upcoming senior wide receiver Isaac Klug.

Isaac Klug will be one of the seniors alongside new head coach Greg Slade next football season, helping to ease the Railers into a new era.

Slade said, “I thought it was kind of important to challenge the boys to get out on their days off, give them an opportunity to go ahead and work out a little and do something for their community.”

“We’ve only had the chance to meet him a couple of times but he’s made it evident that he’s excited to be here and that he wants to help change some culture,” said Klug.

“Building connections with your teammates is something that’s important to not only the team but the coach obviously, knowing that he can count on us and trust us,” said upcoming junior quarterback Colby Gomez.

“Really, I think that what he’s doing is trying to figure out who can be a leader and who will go out there and actually shovel snow and be that type of person,” said upcoming senior tight end Ryan Ruggiero.

During the first snowstorm of the year at the start of February, Slade took to Twitter, encouraging a new Railer football tradition of shoveling snow. In a way, it’s a type of team and community bonding.

Ruggiero said, “Everyone shovels snow but that fact that it’s put out there by coach Slade, kind of makes it more of a team, makes it more of a culture thing.”

“Two weeks ago, whenever we had our first snow day, there was a lot of people who did it, sophomores, juniors, seniors, freshman,” said Klug. “The whole program got involved with it.”

“People you don’t talk to every day, it’s been great shoveling driveways and being able to talk to people that you don’t know,” said Gomez.

“One of those things is to get them out there and let people know who they are and what they’re about,” said Slade. “Those are the types of things that the community members see. As I get into the community more this summer, we’ll get out there even more.”