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SEC announces Community Service Team, highlights efforts of 14 players
By Keith Farner
Published:
The SEC announced its Community Service Team for football players this year, an annual honor ahead of the SEC Championship Game.
The SEC names a Community Service Team for each of its 21-league sponsored sports, looking to highlight an athlete from each school who gives back to his community through superior service efforts.
Here are the players from each program and a brief description of their efforts from the SEC:
Emil Eikyor Jr., OL, Alabama
Eikyor Jr., teamed up with Samaritan’s Feet to provide 25,000 students (aged four to 14 years old) in Alabama with a new pair of shoes before they returned to school in the fall of 2022.
Cam Little, K/P, Arkansas
Little is involved with Down Syndrome Connection of Northwest Arkansas. For the second straight season, he is donating money for every field goal he makes.
Anders Carlson, K, Auburn
Carlson was a Bobby Bowden Award nominee for FCA and is a frequent speaker to local FCA groups and rallies. He mentored high school kickers with both on and off the field topics.
Dante Zanders, TE, Florida
Zanders has accumulated over 46 hours of community service while at UF. He has participated in numerous local elementary visits and served as a Gators Mentor for Williams Elementary.
Kearis Jackson, WR, Georgia
Beginning when he was a student at Peach County High School and continuing to today, Jackson has served as both a mentor to youth in the Middle Georgia area – kids in the “478” area code – and as a motivational speaker to football, basketball and track & field teams in his hometown of Fort Valley, Georgia.
Jalen Geiger, DB, Kentucky
In 2021, Geiger found a mentorship opportunity at Liberty Elementary in Lexington, Kentucky. He has visited the school on several occasions, playing with the kids and talking to them about anti-bullying, learning and trusting their teachers. In 2022, Geiger created the “Just. Inspire. Greatness.” initiative based on his initials.
Mike Jones, LB, LSU
Jones’ community service includes: Golden Harvest Food Bank where he provided meals and nutritional education to over 300 local families; Ravenel Elementary where he was a weekly mentor; Lebanon Blue Devils Youth Football Mentor where he mentored kids within the Lebanon Football Youth League; Participated in the McKinley Senior High School Literacy Fest.
KD Hill, DT, Ole Miss
Hill was the recipient of the prestigious Chucky Mullins Courage Award. He hosted a Thanksgiving meal for local community members in need and hosted a community event in fall 2022, providing food and speaking with students on perseverance, goal-making, leadership and confidence.
Austin Williams, WR, Mississippi State
Williams served on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic through Pinelake Church and visited the Batson Children’s Hospital & Palmer Home for Children to spend time with the children. Williams went to the Emerson Family School to read books and short stories to the children and served as a volunteer through Faithworks for Vacation Bible School with local elementary children.
Barrett Banister, WR, Missouri
Banister’s volunteer experience includes Playing 4 Hope (visits with kids in the hospital due to disability, illness or disease), Angel Tree Secret Santa (holiday shopping for families in need) and Night of Champions (kids camp at Mizzou’s Faurot Field).
MarShawn Lloyd, RB, South Carolina
Lloyd has a heart for community service and has been involved in several projects, many of which are in his home state of Delaware. Locally, he has participated in the Shop With Jocks program, where he goes Christmas shopping with the kids from the Epworth Children’s Home. He has also been involved with a panel discussion regarding student-athletes and injuries, relaying his own experience of sustaining a season-ending injury and the mental and physical toll it takes to rehab and return to the playing field.
Jacob Warren, TE, Tennessee
Warren helped spearhead a “Coats for the Cold” drive to collect thousands of coats for those in the Knoxville area in need. He has participated in numerous trips to the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital during his career. He is also heavily involved with his church, regularly volunteering his time at church events and other activities.
Layden Robinson, OL, Texas A&M
Robinson has dedicated his time to the Brazos Valley Community on a number of occasions, including volunteering at Twin City Missions, serving meals, helping to clean up trash, wipe down walls and windows, while also helping to mop floors and clean flower beds.
Ben Bresnahan, TE, Vanderbilt
He has been one of the team leads with Turner’s Heroes, an organization founded in memory of late Vanderbilt football player Turner Cockrell. In addition to funding cancer research, the organization aims to celebrate pediatric cancer patients as the heroes they are, providing superhero capes at special events. Bresnahan has led the Commodores in connecting with patients at the Monroe Carrel Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
