Today@Sam Article
Bearkats Helping Bearkats: SHSU Baseball
Oct. 9, 2024
SHSU Media Contact: Campbell Atkins
Sam Houston State University’s student-athletes consistently personify the institution’s unyielding commitment to community service. Throughout the year, these Bearkats apply the same level of passion and care to volunteerism as they do to their duties in the classroom and on the field or court.
“All of our sports teams do community service projects, it’s nothing new,” said SHSU’s Head Baseball Coach Jay Sirianni. “It’s not about the recognition. We have an incredible fanbase and if we can help others, that’s rewarding for all of us. If you teach people that at a young age, it can only carry on throughout their lives.”
Bearkat baseball players have already participated in a number of local service projects this fall, including work at Good Shepherd Mission, SAAFE House and Creekside Retirement Community. They also went above and beyond to assist a Bearkat alumna and her family in battling the aftermath of extensive flood damage to their Huntsville home.
“Our home flooded five times in May,” said Natali Maness, who earned her bachelor’s in kinesiology as well as her Master of Business Administration degree from SHSU. “We were out of our home all summer.”
The Maness family was able to return to their home in August, but the overall damage presented a plethora of problems that required a vast amount of work. Maness and her husband, who sustained a life-threatening injury in 2015, worked all summer on the home’s interior, but the outdoor areas were still a cluttered mess of broken fencing, personal items, dirt and scattered firewood.
“To have people come and help us like that was the only way we could have gotten all that work done,” Maness said. “It would have taken me the rest of the year working outdoors to complete everything, and they got it done in one day. I felt very blessed that they thought of us.”
The idea for the players’ project originated from the team chaplain Heath Purgahn, who also runs an organization called Campus Outreach Houston. Purgahn, who attends church with the Maness family, first presented the idea to Sirianni.
“It was hard work, and they didn’t shy away from it,” Purgahn said. “They jumped right in, grabbing shovels and bolt cutters, and got dirty. It was not a light day.”
The work included digging out and removing the busted fence, power washing the home and moving piles of dirt and firewood. They also looked to limit the issues from happening again by rebuilding a berm in front of the home to combat the flow of excess water.
“If the ditches fail again, the water will hit that berm instead of just flowing straight to our front door,” Maness said.
The players spent three hours assisting on the property on Sept. 21, during homecoming weekend. It was the second time Purgahn’s organization assisted the Maness family in a time of need.
“When you can organize things like this, student-athletes get to see a bigger picture of the community and the people who support them,” Purgahn said.
The experience and selflessness reminded Maness of how proud she is of her alma mater and what it means to be a Bearkat.
“It really reflects the motto: The measure of a Life is its Service,” she said. “They were happy to be there, interested and compassionate. I remember being a student in college and know how good this service will be for them.”
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