Community Service Important to Greyhound Football
Players help with projects throughout Portales

PORTALES, N.M. — The Eastern New Mexico University football team has experienced success on the field with seven consecutive winning seasons and Lone Star Conference South Division co-championships in 1999 and 2000. Head Coach Mark Ribaudo and the Greyhounds also have made an effort to achieve success off the field through community service projects covering a wide range of life in Portales.

“Our philosophy at ENMU is we’re one small part of a great community and we want to do our share to make it an even better community,” Ribaudo said.

Last summer during the preseason, the Greyhounds helped clean up U.S. Highway 70 between Portales and Greyhound Stadium, and also held a one-day football camp for area youngsters. It was the second consecutive season in which the Greyhounds included community service as part of their preseason workouts.

The team also has a tradition of helping students learn through literacy programs at area schools. In 1999, the ENMU football team was honored by the national Help One Student to Succeed (HOSTS) mentoring program with its top honor, the Betty Scharff Memorial Award, for helping students at nearby Portales Junior High School with reading and language arts skills.

With a solid history of community service, it’s not surprising that the team added a new level to its efforts by creating the Spring Challenge, in which nine groups of up to 10 players each competed to see which group could provide the most community service in one semester. It was up to each captain and his team members to develop and implement their community service projects. A point system was used to determine the winning teams.

Eastern’s football players participated in a wide range of activities to help the community. They assisted with physical education classes at Lindsey Middle School, washed cars, judged in the Spanish Fair at ENMU, helped with chores at the Baptist Children’s Home, mowed lawns, helped fix up area softball fields, took part in the Community Action Day and were involved in events associated with National Physical Education Day on the ENMU campus.

The Greyhound football team received a certificate of recognition from the Portales City Council and Mayor Orlando Ortega for its efforts in community service. The top three teams in the Spring Challenge were honored with a steak dinner. More importantly, all of the players learned about the benefits of community service as they volunteered more than 1,000 man-hours during the semester.

“They learned self-sacrifice, that giving in some cases is better than receiving and they learned how much our community appreciates Greyhound football,” Ribaudo said. “And they learned how important it is to give to a community to make it better.”

The top teams in the Spring Challenge were: Team 8 (led by Coach Draco Miller) — Corey White, Lawrence Johnson, Matthew Meriwether, Daniel Booker, Olie Fitts, Justin Jones, Lee Price, Josh Brown, Gabe Garcia; Team 6 (led by manager Jason Whalen) — J.J. Ortiz, Robert Garza, Tony Naccarato, Rocky Hartline, Justin Yanez, Matthew Morin, Marcus Corley; Team 3 (led by Coach James Shepherd) — Jeremy Mullins, Tyson Rush, Jorge Melendez, Peter Juve, Keenan Kitchens, Matt Bussanmas, Matt King, David
Montelongo, Less Long.

Although one round of community service is over, that doesn’t mean the Greyhounds are finished helping throughout Portales. The team is getting ready for another year of community service projects.

“This is just the beginning in terms of Greyhound Football and community service,” Ribaudo said. “We’re going to try and continue this and break our record every year.”

Thanks to Shelley Gilmore and Wendel Sloan from the ENMU Office of Communication Services for information used in this press release.