Project W.O.L.F.

Wolves On Learning Fundamentals

High school football season is an exciting time for the young men playing the games, the fans, parents and coaches alike. Each season brings new hope, new opportunities and a fresh start.

For fans and coaches, seasons come and seasons go. What your favorite team didn't do this year you hope they can do next year. Therein lies the beauty of rooting from afar - you have no real stake in what happens.

For the young men playing the games, though, each game means everything. Most kids only start on varsity for one year. Some may start for two years, while exceptional student-athletes might get significant playing time for up to three years. Still, though, time is short. Each game means the world to the high school athlete.

Keeping things in perspective for these young men is a job in itself. One must consider the pressure of winning; the pressure of parents' hopes; peer pressure; the rumor of a scout in the stands. So many things are thrust upon them, yet school work persists, family problems are real, and sometimes there is pressure to get an after-school job.

Until recently, just figuring out how to get eligible to play college football, for example, was a major undertaking for kids, parents and coaches. Balancing life, school and athletics was a problem that students all over, including Grand Street Campus, dealt with on a daily basis.

Add to the normal pressures of high school football, the success of the Grand Street Campus Wolves. In the just-completed 2004 season, the Wolves came into the PSAL playoffs as the number-8 seeded team. A city championship was within their collective grasps. At times, it could all just be too much for a high school student athlete to deal with.

That is where a program called "Project W.O.L.F." comes in. Project W.O.L.F. is a program that -- as described by Grand Street Campus’ Coach Ed Gazzillo -- "is geared to take sports lessons and apply them to other domains." The program is designed to take a student-athlete’s passion for sport and intense dedication to their team and transform it into a force for greater good in their lives.

Thanks to Project W.O.L.F., Grand Street Campus has coaches in the building for kids to turn to for help. In an area where a single parent cannot help, an academic coach from Project W.O.L.F. can. When a coach just doesn't have the capacity to help each and every player with football, class and the NCAA, an academic coach from Project W.O.L.F. is there.

Heart, Pride, and Desire - It isn't everyday you hear those words on the high school football field -- not often enough, to be sure. Thanks to Project W.O.L.F., slogans such as these are popping up all over, leading the way for young men from all backgrounds and classes to develop to brighter future.

Results

Results are the real demonstration of success, both on and off the field.